Private equity investors' impact on innovation in FinTech ventures: a relative analysis between business angels and venture capital firms

In this paper I examined how private equity investors, more specifically angel groups and venture capitalists, impact and drive innovation in FinTech businesses while achieving successful exits. Additionally, I analysed whether the benefits of private equity capital injection vary between angel groups and venture capitalists. To accomplish this, I tracked investments in approximately 1500 FinTech ventures that received private investments during their lifecycle. Using the number of patents and forward citations as a proxy for innovation, the results of the multivariate analyses conducted indicate that venture capitalists increase the patenting rate of the firms in which they invest, and that ventures' innovation performance is also positively impacted by the total amount of investment received, the venture age and the cumulative number of patent applications. Above all, the study demonstrates, through a comparative contribution analysis, how venture capitalists and angel groups are equivalent in terms of positive influence on venture innovation in the FinTech industry.