Skip to main content
Log in

Financing High Technology Startups in Belgium: An Explorative Study

  • Published:
Small Business Economics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The results of an explorative study on the financing of 18 high technology Belgian startups are reported. On a counts basis, the most important sources of financing at the startup are the entrepreneurs and the banks, but the sources that provide the largest amounts of funds are the venture capital companies and private investors. Private investors and venture capitalists have a complementary role, with the former investing mostly at the startup and the latter financing the early growth. The role of the government, universities and other companies is limited.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alderman, N., P. Wynarczyk and A. T. Thwaites, 1988, ‘High Technology, Small Firms and Regional Economic Development: A Question of Balance?’, in M. Giaoutz et al. (eds.), Small and Medium Size Enterprises and Regional Development, London: Routledge, pp. 104–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhide, A., 1992, ‘Bootstrap Finance: The Art of Start-ups’, Harvard Business Review 25, 109–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhide, A., 1994, ‘Efficient Markets, Deficient Governance’, Harvard Business Review 27(6), 128–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruno, A. and T. Tyebjee, 1985, ‘The Entrepreneurs Search for Capital’, Journal of Business Venturing 1, 61–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bygrave, W. D. and J. A. Timmons, 1992, Venture Capital at the Crossroads, Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cressy, R., 1993, Loan Commitments and Business Starts: An Empirical Investigation in U.K. Data, Working Paper 12, Warwick Business School, Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.

  • Dunkelberg, W. and A. Cooper, 1983, ‘Financing the Start of a Small Enterprise’, in J. Hornadey et al. (eds.), Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Wellesley: Babson College, pp. 369–381.

    Google Scholar 

  • EVCA, 1994, 1994 EVCA Yearbook, Zaventem: EVCA and KPMG.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, C., 1985, ‘The Role of Technical Change in National Economic Development’, in A. Amin and J. B. Goddard (eds.), Technological Change, Industrial Restructuring and Regional Development, London: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freear, J. and W. Wetzel, Jr., 1990, ‘Who Bankrolls High-tech Entrepreneurs?’, Journal of Business Venturing 5, 77–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaston, R. J., 1989, Finding Private Venture Capital for Your Firm, New York: John Wiley and Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hustedde, R. and G. Pulver, 1992, ‘Factors Affecting Equity Capital Acquisition: The Demand Side’, Journal of Business Venturing 7, 363–374.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerlinger, F. N., 1973, Foundations of Behavioral Research, London: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (second edition).

    Google Scholar 

  • Landström, H. and C. Olofsson, C., 1996, ‘Informal Venture Capital in Sweden’, in R. T. Harrison and C. M. Mason (eds.), Informal Venture Capital: Information, Networks and Public Policy, Woodhead-Faulkner: Hemel Hempstead, forthcoming.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason, C. and R. Harrison, 1993, ‘Strategies for Expanding the Informal Venture Capital Market’, International Small Business Journal 11, 23–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason, C. and R. Harrison, 1994, ‘The Role of Informal and Formal Sources of Venture Capital in the Financing of Technology-based SMEs in the United Kingdom’, in R. Oakey (ed.), New Technology-Based Firms in the 1990s, London: Paul Chapman, pp. 104–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNally, K. N., 1994, ‘Sources of Finance for U.K. Venture Capital Funds: The Role of Corporate Investors’, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 6, 275–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, B., 1994, ‘Financial Constraints to the Growth and Development of Small High-technology Firms’, in A. Hughes and D. J. Storey (eds.), Finance and the Small Firm, Routeledge, London, pp. 112–144.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray, G. C. and J. Lott, 1994, ‘Have U.K. Venture Capital Firms a Bias against Investment in New Technology-based Firms?’, Research Policy 24, 283–299.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ooghe, H., S. Manigart and Y. Fassin, 1991, ‘Growth Patterns in the European Venture Capital Industry’, Journal of Business Venturing 6, 381–404.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petersen, M. A. and R. G. Rajan, 1994, ‘The Benefits from Lending Relationships: Evidence from Small Business Data’, The Journal of Finance 49, 3–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riding, A. L. and D. M. Short, 1987, ‘Some Investor and Entrepreneur Perspectives on the Informal Market for Risk Capital’, Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship 5(2), 19–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sapienza, H., A. Amason and S. Manigart, 1994, ‘The Level and Nature of Venture Capitalist Involvement in their Portfolio Companies: A Study of Three European Countries’, Managerial Finance 20, 3–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Segers, J-P., 1993, ‘Strategic Partnering between New Technology Based Firms and Large Established Firms in the Biotechnology and Micro-electronics Industries in Belgium’, Small Business Economics 5, 271–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siegel, R., E. Siegel and I. C. MacMillan, 1988, ‘Corporate Venture Capitalists: Autonomy, Obstacles and Performance’, Journal of Business Venturing 3, 233–247.

    Google Scholar 

  • Timmons, J., L. Smollen and A. Dingee Jr., 1985, New Venture Creation: A Guide to Entrepreneurship, Chicago, Richard D. Irwin (second edition).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wetzel, W., Jr., 1994, ‘Venture Capital’, in W. Bygrave (ed.), The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship, New York: Wiley & Sons, pp. 173–191.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Manigart, S., Struyf, C. Financing High Technology Startups in Belgium: An Explorative Study. Small Business Economics 9, 125–135 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007967722346

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007967722346

Keywords

Navigation