Philanthropic Venture Capital: Venture Capital for Social Entrepreneurs?

Abstract

Since social entrepreneurship is a relatively young activity, resource-rich actors, like Philanthropic VCs, have considerable influence over how the space matures (Nicholls, 2010b). The resources and strategic advice that PhVCs provide their SEs shape an institutional logic for the domain. As such, PhVCs enhance legitimacy of the emerging area of social entrepreneurship. This monograph’s main contribution is to delineate the current state of PhVC, identifying differences with traditional VC financing, and identify areas of future research. In particular, this work responds to Nicholls (2010b) and Austin et al.’s (2006) call for research on what types of finance SEs have access to. More specifically, we focus on understanding what PhVC is and how its social value creation investment logic makes it different from traditional VC, opening avenues for future research in this area. We do not cover how PhVCs raise their funds as we are interested in the relationship between the philanthropic investor and the SE.

Keywords: venture capital, social entrepreneurship, philanthropic venture capital

JEL Classification: L26, G24