Overcoming liabilities of foreignness : expanding to Africa as a foreign Venture Capitalist

• Autor(a) principal: Duczek, Markus
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/41045
• topic: Venture Capital; Internationalization; Liabilities of foreignness; Investment process; Africa; Capital de risco; Internacionalização; Capitalistas de risco estrangeiros; Liabilities of foreignness; Processo de investimento; África; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

Venture Capital firms face additional risks and challenges when investing in start-ups in foreign markets because of the increased geographical, institutional, and cultural distance to potential investment targets resulting in Liabilities of Foreignness. Despite these challenges, there are increasing numbers of cross-border investments in the African market. This dissertation explores the drivers of the increasing interest in African start-ups and how foreign investors are overcoming the liabilities of foreignness. The exploratory study uses a qualitative research approach in the form of semi-structured interviews with 12 active investors in Africa. The results highlight the numerous drivers of the growing African Venture Capital market and the different internationalization strategies applied by foreign investors. Moreover, foreign investors in Africa must adapt their traditional investment process to local conditions. Foreign investors use additional risk assessment signals the deal evaluation and not only invest in later rounds, but also place more emphasis on entrepreneurial characteristics and the expertise of local co-investors. Additionally, foreign investors conduct extensive risk analysis of potential macro-economic scenarios potentially impacting local business models. Post-investment activities by foreign investors are strategic by providing an international context to local African start-ups. This thesis adds to existing literature on internationalization of VC firms with a focus on the African continent.