Public venture capital: Missing link or weakest link?

The aim of the article is to examine whether venture capital trusts (VCTs) meet government's expectations and help solve the problem of underinvestment in young companies. In order to do so a survey of companies that were funded by one of the VCTs, the Oxford Technology Trust (OTT), was conducted and the results of this exploratory study are presented in this article. VCTs are compared to two recent government initiatives that also target the lack of investment in young firms. Finally, an attempt is made to assess the effectiveness of VCTs, in particular and such policies, in general.