A Study of Non financial Roles of Venture Capitalists An Indian Perspective

Abstract

The Indian VC industry is relatively younger, however, has been growing at a rapid pace. The newlinelast decade has seen some major investments being made, unicorns being built and few highreturns newlineexits. These are strong indicators of the Indian VC industry potentially maturing. This newlineposes interesting as well as unique opportunities for academic research in venture capital from newlinethe Indian perspective that supplements an organized growth of the industry. newlineThis study focuses on the post-investment, non-financial roles that venture capitalists perform newlinein their portfolio companies (especially when these represent early-stage, high-technology and newlinehigh-growth companies), from the Indian perspective. The study takes into consideration the newlineviewpoint of VCs corroborated by corresponding entrepreneurs. The study attempts to identify newlinethe non-financial roles performed by the VCs in India and qualitatively investigates how the newlineroles are performed. The data was collected through in-depth personal interviews of partners of newlinea heterogenous sample of the most active VC firms in India representing sector-agnostic as well newlineas sector-focussed VC firms. Major findings of the study include empirical evidence on nuances newlineof how VCs in India engage with the portfolio companies by the roles that they perform. The newlinestudy adds to the body of literature on non-financial roles performed by VCs in portfolio newlinecompanies by investigating the phenomenon from the Indian perspective. newline