Public venture capital in Latvia

The first generation of Latvian public venture capital programmes was launched in 2005 and so far five programmes have either been launched or are being planned. Given that the explicit focus from the side of the policy maker has been to supply the Latvian venture capital market with capital, the programmes could be seen as a partial success. However, the programmes have failed to addressthe demand side. This is of particular importance for the future development of the Latvian venture capital market since the evidence reported suggests there are not enough good projects to invest in, while at the same time Latvian entrepreneurs look for venture capital outside Latvia. The paper also pinpoints severe weaknesses in the design and implementation of the five public venture capital programmes.