Specialisation and syndication as risk management strategies for venture capital firms in India

This paper presents an analysis of syndication and domain specialisation strategies pursued by the venture capital (VC) firms in India. Using the theoretical lens of the resource-based view, we explore how three main resource-related attributes: resource structure of the VC firms, resource requirements of the investee ventures and the ease of access to resources, drive the intensities of syndication and specialisation for the VC firms under study. We use the K-means cluster analysis technique, to analyse and profile four distinct VC firm segments: a) low syndication and low specialisation; b) high syndication and low specialisation; c) low syndication and high specialisation; d) high syndication and high specialisation. Our study contributes to the extant literature on VC investment strategies, top management teams and fills an important gap on the literature pertaining to VC firms in India.