Working paper

From start-up to scale-up: examining public policies for the financing of high-growth ventures

What are the challenges of financing scale-ups, and how can long-term public policies support the creation of a better scale-up environment?

Publishing date: 10 April 2017
Authors: Karen Wilson Thomas Hellmann Gilles Duruflé

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We examine the challenge entrepreneurial companies face in going beyond the start-up phase and growing into large successful companies. We examine the long-term financing of these so-called scale-up companies, focusing on the United States, Europe and Canada. We first provide a conceptual framework for understanding the challenges of financing scale-ups. We then show some data about the various aspects of financing scale-ups in the US, Europe and Canada. Finally we raise the question of long-term public policies to support the creation of a better scale-up environment.

About the authors

Karen Wilson

Karen joined Bruegel in September 2012. She has worked in the Structural Policy Division of the Science, Technology and Industry Directorate at the OECD since 2009 and served as a Senior Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation from 2008-2012. She is an Associate Fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University and a Visiting Lecturer at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. Karen is the founder of GV Partners, a research and consulting firm she created in 2004. Her work at Bruegel focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Karen is a Board Member and Advisor of the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research (EFER), a member of the European Leadership Council for Harvard Business School, a Research and Policy Advisor for the U.K. Prince’s Trust Youth Business International (YBI), and an expert on the European Commission Horizon 2020 Access to Risk Finance Advisory Group. She is the author of a number of publications on entrepreneurship and finance.

Prior to founding GV Partners, Karen worked with a leading international venture capital firm. Previously, she was part of the senior management team at the World Economic Forum and, before that, served as the Executive Director of the Global Initiative at Harvard Business School. She received, with honors, a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Declaration of interests 2015
Thomas Hellmann

Dr. Thomas Hellmann is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Saïd School of Business at Oxford University. He holds a BA from the London School of Economics and a PhD from Stanford University. He previously was a member of faculty at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia. He also held visiting positions at Harvard Business School, the Wharton School (University of Philadelphia), Hoover Institution (Stanford), INSEAD (France) and the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia).

Professor Hellmann has taught executive, MBA and undergraduate courses, mostly in the areas of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial finance. Professor Hellmann’s research interests include entrepreneurial finance, entrepreneurship, innovation, strategic management and public policy. He is also the founder of the NBER Entrepreneurship Research Boot Camp, which teaches the frontiers of entrepreneurship economics and entrepreneurial finance to PhD students.
Gilles Duruflé