The Dealogic platform and database of startup M&A and IPO activity is a potentially useful resource for academic scholars of entrepreneurship. It contains validated and reconciled data for hundreds of thousands of mergers, acquisitions, and initial public offerings. Of course, only a fraction of the database is related to new ventures. Nevertheless, it can be useful for entrepreneurship research into startup financing – especially of new ventures related to financial and capital markets technology.
Clearly, many aspects of new venture financing are proprietary and confidential in nature. For example, neither the investors nor the startup would generally want to make the post-money valuation publicly known. Similarly, both parties would prefer to keep the terms private, e.g., exit clauses, investor rights, ESOP mandates, etc. However, it is this very data that researchers need to uncover the relationships between incentives and performance, monetary rewards and founder behavior, negotiation tactics in venture capital, etc. Thus, databases like Dealogic can go a long way in helping entrepreneurship scholars conduct empirical analysis that supports their theorizing.
Access to Dealogic
A subscription is required to access the Dealogic database for startup financing, which has been used in the following entrepreneurship research:
- Cojoianu, T. F., Clark, G. L., Hoepner, A. G. F., Pažitka, V., & Wójcik, D. (2020). Fin vs. tech: are trust and knowledge creation key ingredients in fintech start-up emergence and financing? Small Business Economics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-020-00367-3