Venture Capitalism: Its Contribution to Business Growth, Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Early Stage Ventures.

Venture capital (VC) activity has been increasing over time, impacting early-stage ventures such as startups and scaleups, worldwide. In line with the growth and demand of innovation within multiple sectors, it is enhancing entrepreneurship and the growth of national economies. Therefore, the following internship report besides providing a detailed description of activities that the researcher has developed in a Venture Capital firm as a Venture Analyst, the researcher took advantage of the current network and portfolio companies from Unknown Group to answer the main research question: How is Venture Capitalism steering business growth, entrepreneurship, and innovation of early-stage ventures? The data collected was conducted through a qualitative methodology. First, by interviewing 5 startups founders, analysing their perspective towards VC as an industry, compare the ease of obtaining funding via other sources such as bank institutions, as well as how Unknown Group can accelerate its portfolio ventures further, as a VC. Secondly, through secondary data such as interactions and observations with multiple employees, business development representatives, as well as company’s insight reports and investment presentations tailored to the research question. The main conclusions obtained were that: (1) VC positively stimulates and supports the growth of entrepreneurship and innovation; (2) VC funding in early-stage ventures is growing worldwide and (3) early-stage ventures are eager to obtain funding via VC; (4) VC is a catalyst of emerging tech and industries and that, (5) HR allocation has a significant impact in building a good portfolio of companies. For academia, this study provides a rich literature review and real cases, aiming to bring a discussion towards the trends felt over the years within Venture Capital but also on early-stage ventures funding. For the company, it provides relevant recommendations and feedback to fulfil the needs of portfolio ventures and stimulate further startup-corporate collaborations.