Angel investors, seed-stage investors and founders influence on FinTech funding: an emerging market context

ABSTRACT

This study examines the difference between the FinTechs that received private equity and venture capital funds and those that did not. We test this with a sample of 2,524 companies across 76 countries over 2008–2018. We show a positive relationship between having received an angel and a seed round with follow-on financing, and a negative relationship with having a single founder. The impact of the seed financing and the single founder is weaker in an emerging market. Furthermore, companies in financing and payments categories are more likely to receive funding.

KEYWORDS:

• FinTech
• start-up funding
• CrunchBase
• early-stage finance

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• M21

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Luisa Herck Giaquinto

Luisa Herck Giaquinto graduated in Economics from The Université de Bruxelles and has a double master's degree in Finance from INSPER and Universidade Nova de Lisboa. She is a digital business expert with 10+ years track record as an entrepreneur and with companies such as Google and Carrefour. Experience in leading cross-functional teams and projects, product development, business analytics, insights, and revenue opportunities.

Adriana Bruscato Bortoluzzo

Adriana Bruscato Bortoluzzo is a Doctor of Statistics from the University of São Paulo (USP). She joined Insper in 1999, and since 2016 is an associate professor, also dedicated to research. She has published papers in Brazilian academic journals, such as Brazilian Administration Review (BAR), Estudos Econômicos, Brazilian Finance Review and Revista de Adminstração da USP (RAUSP); as well as in international journals, such as Emerging Markets Finance & Trade and Journal of Applied Statistics. Her research is currently devoted to analyses of Brazilian and cross-border mergers and acquisitions in Brazil, estimation of cost of capital and optimization of the capital structure of companies in Brazil, as well as various topics in the field of Applied Statistics. She lectures courses on Statistics and Econometrics (undergraduate program), Econometrics and Multivariate Analysis (master’s program) and Quantitative Methods (MBA program).