Investment behavior of German Single Family Offices and Foundations towards Venture Capital with a focus on the life sciences sector (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,7, Technical University of Munich, language: English, abstract: VC plays a fundamental role in the financing landscape of young life sciences companies. Hence its availability is a crucial catalyst which can either promote or inhibit the whole development of an industry branch. VC funds are financial intermediaries which raise capital from either institutional or private investors to invest it further into the economy in the form of start-up financing. While there are young, capital-seeking life sciences companies on the demand side, VC funds with their investment capital stand opposite on the supply side. The investment decision process and relationship between the Venture Capitalists (VCs) and the entrepreneurs are well covered research subjects, whereas the decision process and interaction between VC investors or limited partners (LPs) and VCs or general partners (GPs) are left on the sidelines. Looking at the entire VC supply chain, research has so far almost omitted the supply side topic of the investment decision process of institutional or private investors towards VC. Therefore the aim of this thesis is to analyze the investment behavior of German LPs in the form of single family offices (SFOs) and foundations vis-à-vis VC. The objective is to fill a gap in the research on the supply side of VC, specifically in the life sciences sector, through qualitative interviews with a group of institutional and private investors which have been subject to little research to date. Finally, a framework will be developed which seeks to portray the main findings and bridge to applicable economic theories.