Abstract
This research paper investigates the role of Italian venture capital in supporting innovative start-ups in their early-stage process, which is usually focused on the creation of a new product or the development of a new service. The aim of the study is to observe and assess the key economic features of innovative start-ups funded at the beginning of the early-stage by venture capital funds and thereafter analyze the level of development of target companies at four years since the capital injection. The sample of deals created to describe this dynamic process is composed by investments realized between 1996 and 2012 and, in this way, according to the chosen methodology, it is representative of Italian venture capital role and contribution in the years from 1996 to 2016. The authors used for their empirical study a proprietary database, Venture Capital Monitor—VeMTM. Through the analysis of collected data, the paper describes the strategic importance of venture capital investments in early-stage opportunities both for target companies and the Italian socio-economic environment, and finds aggregate values of reference to quantitatively define the socio-economic outcome of this kind of operations. A final further contribution is provided by comparing the present results to the ones of two previous studies conducted by the authors.