Excerpt. A new BAC4SHC research database connects early-stage investor type with startup characteristics, financial indicators and innovation outcomes.
BAC4SHC has developed a validated database covering 7,997 startups located in 31 European countries and operating across 20 sectors. The dataset focuses on firms that received early-stage equity investment and brings together information on financing events, investor type, company characteristics and financial and accounting performance.
Patent information covering 1,797 observations has been incorporated, allowing the research team to examine both the scale and structure of inventive activity through indicators based on patent families. The database distinguishes startups backed by business angels, crowd investors or both investor types.
Preliminary analysis suggests that business-angel-backed startups have, on average, more distinct patent families than crowd-investor-backed firms. The current results describe an association rather than a causal effect and will be examined further during the final analytical phase.