The decline in initial public offerings (IPOs) has raised concerns about the vitality of the venture capital industry. We examine capital recovery in the VC industry using returns for 1,215 M&A and 1,401 IPO exits from U.S. based venture-backed companies during 1985 to 2008. We find that mean...

The factors that drive the financing available to start-ups is a key issue for entrepreneurs, venture capitalists (VCs), and other investors in new ventures, especially in light of the difficult exit market the industry has faced over the last decade. We examine how the dollars gained and lost...

This study is the first to empirically construct exit returns - the return accruing to venture capitalists (VCs) from investments in portfolio companies - for a large sample of U.S. venture-backed companies. Exit returns are used (1) to document the size and trends in returns for specific...

This paper studies 1,655 venture investments in public equity (“VIPEs”) over 1995-2008. Although it has been conjectured that venture capital firms (VCs) have increased investments in public equity over time, we find little evidence to support this claim as VIPEs represent less than 2...

Assessing the performance of private equity (PE) investments is a challenging task. It starts with the fact that the assets are privately held and illiquid. By contrast, public equity valuations are determined in a vast open market populated largely by disinterested investors acting on publicly...