Today, business angel and venture capital activity in Europe is less than one fourth of that in the U.S. So how to boost entrepreneurship and fill the equity gap faced by startups in their early life cycle?

For Vincenzo Capizzi, SDA professor of banking and insurance at Bocconi University, the most important way to stimulate startups creation is to think of all those involved, crowdfunding platforms, business incubators and accelerators, business angels and angel networks, banks and financial institutions, regulators and policymakers, as an “ecosystem for startups”. This could help boosting financial innovation in order to fill the equity gap for instance by designing new financial securities or new contracts for startups.

Equally important is to stimulate the creation of startups by fostering a culture of entrepreneurship at the university level or at the job training level. Last but not least, according to Prof Capizzi, there is no need for more studies and researches but instead for better quality studies and researches which could be reached if research centers at all levels (regional, national, international) could exchange their datasets, methodologies and analysis.

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