Did Government Venture Capital Fund Innovative but Less Profitable companies? Evidence from China

Governmental venture capital (GVC) is a typical dual-purpose hybrid entity, which aims to increase social welfares as well as making profits for investors. Yet little is known about how the dual purposes shape GVC’s investment strategies that interact with private venture capital’s (PVC). Applying a two-sided matching model, we develop a structural model to examine whether GVCs invested in innovative but less profitable companies that ignored by PVCs. Using the data of Chinese VC industry in 2000-2012, we find supports for our hypotheses. These fresh results suggest that GVC commendably fulfill their social mission while pursuing economic benefits in a competitive environment. Moreover, GVCs are at least not worse than PVCs in nurturing companies in term of achieving IPO/M&A, and they support company innovation effectively in term of patent application.