Venture Capital Financing and Green Patenting

Abstract

This paper explores the role of green innovation in attracting venture capital (VC) financing. We use a unique dataset that matches information on equity transactions, companies’ balance sheet variables and data on patented innovation at the firm level over the period 2008–2017. Taking advance of a novel granular definition of green innovative activities that tracks patents at the firm level, we show that green innovators are more likely to receive VC funding compared to other equity financing than firms without green patents. Likewise, a larger share of green vs. non-green patents in a firm’s patent portfolio increases the probability of receiving VC finance with respect to other equity. Robustness checks and extensions tackling several dimensions of heterogeneity confirm the attractiveness of green patenting for VC investment