The informal venture capital market in Norway ? investor characteristics, behaviour and investment preferences

There is widespread recognition in Norway that the reliance of SMEs on debt financing must be reduced while equity finance sources need to be increased. One of the main sources of equity capital is the informal venture capital market. This paper is a response to the lack of knowledge of the informal venture capital market in Norway. The findings reported in this paper are based on a large survey comprising 6618 persons. Out of all the respondents, 425 are classified as informal investors and comprise the data material that this paper is based upon. This paper describes the Norwegian informal investors in terms of their demographics, investment activity, behaviour and investment preferences. A comparison is made between the results from the Norwegian survey and findings from the UK and Sweden.