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<p>I media debatteras flitigt olika aspekter på hur riskkapitalbolag agerar vid investeringar. Bland annat att riskkapitalbolagen kräver hög avkastning vilket de försvarar med att de tar så oerhört stora risker när de går in i nya bolag.</p><p>I uppsatsen har två investment managers på två olika venture capitalbolag på den svenska marknaden intervjuats. I vår undersökning har vi sökt svar på frågor kring risk, riskhantering och involvering. Vi har angripit vår problemformulering utifrån ett teoretiskt och ett empiriskt perspektiv. </p><p>Vi har kommit fram till att venture capitalbolag tar en stor risk vid investeringstillfället och enda sättet att minimera denna risk är att involvera sig i portföljbolaget. Denna involvering sker genom platser i styrelsen i portföljbolaget. Från denna position försöker man påverka bolagsledningen att agera på ett fördelaktigt sätt sett ur venture capitalbolagets synvinkel för att i slutändan maximera avkastningen. </p><p>Det nätverk som venture capitalbolagen omger sig av är till stöd under initial analys av portföljbolaget då man måste finna lämpliga deltagare till portföljbolaget. Venture capitalbolaget letar efter personer, inom sitt nätverk, som kan fylla upp de eventuella områden som portföljbolaget kan behöva hjälp med. Från nätverket refereras entreprenören, detta gör att man minskar risktagandet i entreprenören som person då man litar på att de som refererat honom har god kännedom om honom. Man sänker härmed risken med att entreprenören kommer agera på ett sätt som missgynnar venture capitalbolaget.</p>

I media debatteras flitigt olika aspekter på hur riskkapitalbolag agerar vid investeringar. Bland annat att riskkapitalbolagen kräver hög avkastning vilket de försvarar med att de tar så oerhört stora risker när de går in i nya bolag. I uppsatsen har två investment managers på två olika venture capitalbolag på den svenska marknaden intervjuats. I vår undersökning har vi sökt svar på frågor kring risk, riskhantering och involvering. Vi har angripit vår problemformulering utifrån ett teoretiskt och ett empiriskt perspektiv. Vi har kommit fram till att venture capitalbolag tar en stor risk vid investeringstillfället och enda sättet att minimera denna risk är att involvera sig i portföljbolaget. Denna involvering sker genom platser i styrelsen i portföljbolaget. Från denna position försöker man påverka bolagsledningen att agera på ett fördelaktigt sätt sett ur venture capitalbolagets synvinkel för att i slutändan maximera avkastningen. Det nätverk som venture capitalbolagen omger sig av är till stöd under initial analys av portföljbolaget då man måste finna lämpliga deltagare till portföljbolaget. Venture capitalbolaget letar efter personer, inom sitt nätverk, som kan fylla upp de eventuella områden som portföljbolaget kan behöva hjälp med. Från nätverket refereras entreprenören, detta gör att man minskar risktagandet i entreprenören som person då man litar på att de som refererat honom har god kännedom om honom. Man sänker härmed risken med att entreprenören kommer agera på ett sätt som missgynnar venture capitalbolaget.

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The interest for venture capital within the financial sector in Sweden has, according to earlier studies, been seen as a growing occurrence. Especially for what is known as informal venture capital. In modern times, private investors who engage themselves in small, unlisted companies, providing informal venture capital are to be known as business angels. They close equity gaps on the financial market by contribute financial capital to start-ups and are therefore an important participant on today’s market. The aim of this study is to generate further understanding and knowledge about business angels and their view on investing equity in companies who are still in their early development phases. Furthermore, the aim is to generate knowledge about business angel’s view on the risks they are being involved in with their investments in companies’ initial development phases. The methodology used is semi-structured interviews. The result is presented from the answers of three respondents, which mainly shows that business angels have to deal with different risks such as financial risks, business related risks and risks associated with the relationship between the business angel and entrepreneur. In conclusion, the risks mentioned previously are all essential for a business angel investment and need to be considered before and after an investment is being completed. Other studies also show similar results. An agency theory approach is also being used in this study to provide a further understanding regarding the risks business angels have to consider with their investments.

Bakgrund       Tillväxtviljan bland de svenska småföretagen är stor, men avsaknad av kapital begränsar många entreprenörer och småföretag. Den höga risknivån minskar möjligheterna att erhålla exempelvis bankfinansiering, och för många tillväxtbolag i tidiga faser kan Venture Capital därför vara det enda finansieringsalternativet. Syfte               Syftet med studien är att skapa förståelse för de investeringskriterier som svenska Venture Capital-bolag använder vid sin utvärdering av potentiella investeringsobjekt samt jämföra dessa med vad entreprenörer anser påverkar utvecklingen av ett företag. Metod             Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär och empirin består av data från 20 genomförda intervjuer samt skriftliga frågeformulär, där respondenterna utgörs av venture-kapitalister samt entreprenörer som har erhållit Venture Capital-finansiering. Resultat         De kriterier som är centrala vid Venture Capital-bolags utvärdering av potentiella investeringsobjekt är entreprenörsteamet, marknads-förutsättningar samt produkterbjudande. Av dessa kriterier anser både venture-kapitalister och entreprenörer att det är entreprenörsteamet som i störst utsträckning påverkar ett företags utveckling. Att entreprenörsteamet tillskrivs så stor betydelse förklaras av att förutsättningarna för företagets fortsatta utveckling ständigt förändras, vilket ställer krav på att entreprenörsteamet har förmåga att hantera denna dynamiska process och anpassa företagets utveckling efter oförutsedda förändringar. / Background   There is a strong desire to grow among small Swedish enterprises, but lack of capital is a limiting factor to many entrepreneurs and small enterprises. The high level of risk reduces the possibilities of receiving financing through bank loan or similar, which makes Venture Capital the only financing alternative for some high growth-ventures in early stages. Aim                 The aim of this study is to provide understanding for the investment criteria used by Swedish Venture Capital firms during their evaluation of investment propositions, and to compare these with factors that entrepreneurs perceive as influential to the development of a company. Methodology The approach of this study is qualitative, and the presented findings are conducted from 20 interviews and written questionnaires. The respondents consist of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs who have received Venture Capital financing. Result            The criteria that are of central importance to Venture Capital firms’     when evaluating investment propositions are the entrepreneurial team, the market potential and the product offer. Among these criteria both entrepreneurs and venture capitalists perceive the entrepreneurial team as the criterion with the largest impact on the development of a company. The importance of the entrepreneurial team is explained by the fact that the conditions for the company’s further development are under continuous change, which necessitates the entrepreneurial team’s ability to handle this dynamic process and adapt the company’s development to unexpected changes.

In this research, the authors aim to identify important dimensions for newly established ventures and the way these dimensions are dealt with. However, this study is limited to small on-line new ventures. In order to achieve this purpose, the authors, after reviewing the literature in the field of e-commerce, have identified five dimensions and have proposed their importance to newly established small internet ventures. Furthermore, the authors tried to check for similarities in the strategies followed by the studied ventures. The dimensions are system qualities, promotion, security, competition and cost. The data was collected from five entrepreneurs who have founded and currently running small online new ventures. The authors found that system qualities, promotion and security were important for all ventures. Whereas, the importance of competition and cost was not shared by all the ventures.

A Study of Venture Capitals¡¦ Investment Decision-Making and Performance in Taiwan: A Case of C Venture Capital Abstract Info-tech industry plays an important role in Taiwan¡¦s economic development, and for the last eighteen years a huge amount of capital invested in domestic high-tech industry by Taiwan¡¦s venture capitalists has been spurring capital formation of its high-tech industry. Moreover, the investment by venture capitals in earlier technology companies provides technology start-up teams with outstanding capital backup for management, which thus effectively promotes innovation and development of technology industry. Also, the provision of capital by venture capital industry, the talented technicians trained by ITRI, and the cluster of vertically related industries in Hsinchu Science-based industrial park jointly offer advantaged conditions for the development of such tech industries as semi-conductor, electronics information, and opto-electronic, which makes Taiwan one of the major manufacturing countries in global info-tech industry. However, venture capital is a high-risk, high-stakes investment industry; issues such as whether domestic venture capitalists have preferences in investment decision-making in terms of investing in high-tech companies at stages of seed, early, expansion, and mature, as well as which one¡¦s performance will be better when it comes to investing in domestic or foreign (mainly in America) high-tech companies are worth investigating. Still, little research on venture capitals was conducted to explore key decision factors for whether to invest and what factors cause investment projects to succeed or fail. Using C venture capital as a case, the primary purposes of this study are therefore to examine if there exists any one certain preferred decision factor for investment, to follow up the outcomes of investment projects, and to seek the factors of success and failure for these projects. The results of this study show that venture capitalists do prefer to invest at the stages of expansion and mature, for it is easier to predict the outcomes of investment projects. In addition, as a result of Taiwan¡¦s tech industry relocating to mainland China, venture capitalists¡¦ being still forbidden to invest in China, and the significantly decreasing number of domestic profitable projects, the ratio of increasing investment at the seed and early stages has been rising accordingly. Furthermore, it can be found that the investment performance on foreign high-tech companies is better than that on domestics, the ratio of investment continues rising year by year, and venture capital is moving toward globalization. In this study, the decision factors directing the investment decision-making of the board of directors in the case company are based on four dimensions of evaluation principles: (a) business starter & management team; (b) industry & market; (c) product & technology; and (d) financial planning & reward. The findings of this study show that investment target companies are more likely to be invested if they possess better technology platforms or patents than their competitors, or their products are more unique. But they are unlikely to be invested if their industrial future is uncertain or the product market is small. Also, according to the analysis of factors for the outcomes of investment projects, projects invested based on their advantaged conditions in the dimensions of industry & market and product & technology have better chance to succeed; while those invested due to being advantageous in the dimensions of business starter & management team, and financial planning & reward are more likely to fail. This study indicates that although the two decision factors of finance and management team have advantages, without the matching of industry & market and product & technology, high-tech industry is not necessarily able to gain profit; but if there are problems with the latter two factors, the companies will definitely fail, leading to bankruptcy and liquidation. To sum up, having advantages in both factors of industry & market and product & technology is more likely to profit a company, but only with the positive incorporation of management team and financial planning can it further ensure a company¡¦s success.

This study probes into the process of new venture establishment from the perspective of entrepreneurship, such as discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities to actions taken to maximize the returns from these opportunities. Furthermore, the role of the entrepreneur in the process is also analyzed. The findings are summarized below: 1.In an ambiguous entrepreneurial environment, opportunities are not always clear from the beginning. Thus, new venture must take the ¡§exploration¡¨ action to find new opportunities. 2.After the discovery of new opportunities, it must take the ¡§exploitation¡¨ action to maximize return from these opportunities to create wealth, i.e. the gradual accumulation of resources to ultimately form its competitive advantage. 3.Both the ¡§exploration¡¨ and ¡§exploitation¡¨ actions can be further divided into different tacit strategies: systematic, guerilla, undisciplined, and autonomous tacit strategies. In addition, an entrepreneur has many different roles: chief, mentor, coach, and lord. However, no matter the actions taken, all new ventures must first perform risk assessments, from its internal resources to its external environment, before taking any actions in order to minimize failures.