The Globalization of Venture Capital

In recent years, the growth of offshoring in startups has posed a key challenge for the venture capital industry, which has been regionally anchored until recently.

The challenge is how to add value through the traditional venture capital (VC) approach of active board involvement, such as assisting with company strategy, recruitment and fundraising. The complexity for venture capitalists (VCs) has increased with the shift from offshore manufacturing to services, the advent of new locations such as India, changing regulatory structures, and new financing options such as outsourced versus in-house work and product versus service startups.

1. Local to Global: How is VC changing?
2. What is staying local and what is going global: past and current trends? How do prior experiences, social networks shape the globalization of VC?
3. Financing startups in services: How are they different from financing startups in manufacturing? What models will be favorable for the VCs? Is the focus going to be product or services companies?
4. How do regulatory structures for venture capital matter? Can they mimic their Silicon Valley structure with l.p.s and close board control? If not, what are the compromises?
5. Talent issues: Can one find the right VC talent overseas?
6. What are VCs funding in India?
7. What are the opportunities for new entrepreneurs and what are VCs looking for in new investments?