Title: Social venture capital - a new investment alternative for Indian social entrepreneurs

Authors: Minnu F. Pynadath; Sam Thomas

Addresses: School of Management Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, Kerala, India ' School of Management Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, Kerala, India

Abstract: A bright spark and an innovative idea can bloom into a reality only if the entrepreneur has an assurance that financial trepidations do not weigh him/her down. In India, social venture capital is pulling out all stops to encourage entrepreneurs who pitch in a start-up for a social cause. The popular sources of finance in this milieu are business incubation and venture capital, but, of late, great significance is attached to social venture capital. Given this context, this study attempts to find out the pattern of firms which received funding from social venture capital and their impact on the value of these firms. The empirical results, derived from a dataset of 765 funding deals of social venture capital in various sectors for the last ten years (2009-2018), reveal that some sectors were preferred over other sectors. The results also show that different types of financial instruments were used for funding by the social venture capitalists. In addition, this paper identifies the critical decision criteria of social venture investors and these findings will contribute to the emerging field of social investment.

Keywords: social venture capital; entrepreneurship; impact investments; social finance; sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTTC.2021.117624

International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, 2021 Vol.18 No.2, pp.230 - 245

Received: 27 Dec 2019
Accepted: 05 Sep 2020

Published online: 16 Sep 2021 *

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