Abstract
Indian venture capital industry is one of the predominant players among South Asian countries. New funds have opened their shop here and are continuing to bring in more funds. The industry has undergone a major shift in focus. India is not a country which offers lower-cost production alternatives but is a high-tech and global outsourcing centre.
The present study reports four factors which are used by the venture capitalists to screen new venture proposals. Using Kendall's tau-c analysis, the study brings out strong association between several variable pairs. Broadly, the analysis finds that:
Successful venture teams put in sustained efforts on identified target markets. They are highly meticulous while attending to the details. These teams are adept at dealing with risk because of their impeccable past experience. Indian venture capitalists do not seem to be much enamoured of technology venturing; at least some of the successful ventures funded by them do not seem to show signs of being hi-tech.
The study brings out four important variables which are highly unique to successful venture in India. They are:
ability to evaluate and react to risk attention to details market share profits.
Evaluating risk seems to be an area where unsuccessful ventures fail. Since successful teams focus on established markets and meticulously pursue these markets to gain market share, they achieve desired profits.
The future research may explore the process of screening and evaluation by investigating the same through other means such as qualitative technique and techniques from cognitive psychology. The aspect of accuracy of venture capitalists' introspection would be an interesting area to study. Unless more research is conducted in the cognitive process of venture capitalists' decision-making, our understanding would remain insufficient.