<title>Abstract</title> Various levels of government have implemented instruments to promote business angel investment, often mirroring those used to support the institutional venture capital market. The paper reviews the existing practices at a point in time when intervention in the field of business angels...

<italic>Previous research has highlighted the existence of an information problem (information gap) among business angels, mainly due to their desire to keep a low public profile and to the informal character of the market. The creation of business angels' networks was promoted in order to deal with...</italic>

Start-ups and early stage ventures are facing more and more financial constraints. The lack of second round financing substantially reduces the potential of patent applications from spin-offs and other early stage ventures. On the other hand, investing in new companies provides large companies...