Money, space and relationality : rethinking the venture capital industry in the East Midlands and the North East of England

Abstract

This research is concerned with analysing a particular intersection of the financial system, the venture capital industry. It is based on a comparative study of two case study regions, the East Midlands and the North East of England which both secure low levels of venture capital investment relative to the rest of the UK. Using qualitative methods, this thesis studies entrepreneurs and professional finance agents who either supply finance or help entrepreneurs to seek it. This thesis has two aims. Firstly, it seeks to understand the dyn~mics that underpin finance gaps (i.e. mismatches in the supply and demand of finance) by unveiling the financial know ledges embodied by the different agents involved in lending, and examining the different money cultures in which they operate. .I argue that the production of finance gaps at the local level is far more complex and culturally nuanced than suggested by current research on regional development and venture capital suggest. I argue that finance gaps are underpinned by differences in the financial knowledges held by venture capitalists and entrepreneurs making it difficult for the two agents to intersect and do business together Secondly, using a relational approach this research aims to produce an alternative way of conceptualising the processes and practices of the venture capital industry by recasting it as a networked and stretched out construction. By tracing the relational networks of connections that venture capitalists in the North East and East Midlands maintain across space and at a distance, I produce a more intricate, subtle and spatially refined theorisation of the venture capital industry. In so doing, I escape the more territorially bounded studies of the industry where regions can be seen as spatial 'containers' in which venture capital investment takes place.