Fatores críticos para seleção de ENBTs por fundos de venture capital no Brasil

Abstract

Technology-based companies (TBCs) are of outstanding importance in the generation and diffusion of innovations. For the beginning or continuation of the activities of these companies to become viable, there is often the need for supply of third party funds. In this context, the venture capitalists, through their investment funds may consist of important financiers of these companies. The objective of this study was to identify and describe the critical factors (CF) used by managers of VC funds for selecting ETBCs. Through ten semi-structured interviews, with managers of Brazilian VC funds, were found these critical factors for selecting ETBCs: (i) team (history, knowledge, skills, context), (ii) technology, product, production process, (iii) market (consumer, competition, regulation, economy), (iv) project/business (business situation), (v) financial analysis, (vi) exit, (vii) deal and (viii) fund guidelines. The main contribution of this study to the area of investments in ETBCs through VC funds, in Brazil, is related to the relevance of the team that is leading the project. It was evident that the team's characteristics are more critical to the business selection process than the financial examination. The refusal by an ETBCs due to financial analysis shows prohibitive only if the assessment has been extremely pessimistic or has been found bottleneck in the costs or the selling price of the product.