Nascent Entrepreneurs, Innovation and Financing Constraints

Innovative nascent entrepreneurs face the problem of obtaining finance, mainly due to information problems. We use new data on capital seeking start-ups allowing distinction between planning stage and early stage. Being innovative does not affect the probability of having external finance in the planning stage but has a positive effect in the early stage. Early start-ups with patents have a significantly higher probability of having equity whereas debt is not affected. Patents, coupled with prototypes have a higher probability for external finance which may be due to reduced uncertainties and learning. The most important determinant of debt is house ownership.