Recent studies have found that disruptive technologies, such as FinTech, have the potential to overturn existing business models and overthrow incumbents. These studies have demonstrated that newly emerging digital platforms financing early-stage ventures threaten traditional venture capital (VC). We argue that, conversely, VC benefits from advances in information and communication technology (ICT), as ICT fosters entrepreneurship and mitigates agency issues in VC deals. This paper examines the impact of digitization on VC investments from 23 European countries spanning 2007–2019 using a dynamic panel two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique. The results show that the factors “ICT penetration” (a general measure of societal internet and computer access and use) and “digital economy” (a measure of ICT-powered economic activity) exert significant and positive effects on early-stage, later-stage, and total VC investments. Moreover, availability of bank credit moderates the effect of digital economy on VC investment. Finally, this study reveals that it is digital entrepreneurship (as reflected in our “digital economy” measure), and not total entrepreneurial activity, that attracts VC investment. We conclude that the VC industry is aligned with rather than threatened by the newly emerging digital environment. The empirical results are robust to different control variables and data sources. This paper offers useful implications for policy and contributes to the literature on digital entrepreneurship and venture capital.

最近的研究发现，颠覆性技术（例如FinTech）有可能推翻现有的商业模式并推翻现有企业。这些研究表明，为早期风险投资提供资金的新兴数字平台威胁着传统风险投资（VC）。相反，我们认为，风险投资受益于信息和通信技术（ICT）的进步，因为ICT可以促进企业家精神并减轻风险投资交易中的代理问题。本文使用动态面板两步系统广义矩（GMM）估算技术，研究了数字化对23个欧洲国家（2007-2019年）的风险投资的影响。结果表明，“ ICT渗透率”（衡量社会互联网和计算机访问和使用的一般指标）和“数字经济”（衡量ICT驱动的经济活动的指标）因素对早期，后期，阶段以及风险投资总额。此外，银行信贷的可用性减轻了数字经济对风险投资的影响。最后，这项研究表明，吸引风险投资的是数字企业家精神（反映在我们的“数字经济”指标中），而不是全部创业活动。我们得出的结论是，VC行业与新兴的数字环境保持一致，而不是受到威胁。实验结果对于不同的控制变量和数据源具有鲁棒性。