The Role of Venture Capital in the Creation of Public Companies: Evidence from the Going-Public Process

Explores the nature of the venture capital investment through examination of initial public offerings (IPOs). Venture capitalists are often active investors who participate in management of the firms. The venture capital investment can be ended in a variety of ways, with the sale of the company's shares through a public offering being the most prevalent. Data used in the analysis includes 433 IPOs that were backed by venture capitalists from 1978 to 1987 and 1,123 IPOs without such backing. Results show that venture capitalists tend to focus on certain industries, in order to develop an expertise. In this case, the focus was on computer equipment, electrical and electronic components, instrumentation, and business services. The median offering size of firm IPOs backed by venture capitalists was larger than the size of those not backed. Based on analysis of the full sample, it appears that venture capitalists are able to bring public the firms they back earlier than would have otherwise been possible. This likely occurs because of the industries in which the venture capitalists focus. Venture capitalists take a monitoring role, demonstrated by serving on the board, maintaining the investment beyond the IPO, and holding a large equity position in a portfolio firm. Finally, it is determined that investor uncertainty is reduced with the quality of the venture capitalist's monitoring skill. A decrease in investor uncertainty was found to decrease IPO underpricing. These findings support the notion that venture capitalists play an important role in new enterprise. (SRD)