The entrepreneurial finance landscape has changed consistently over the last years and many new players, with a variety of investment goals and investment approaches, have entered the arena. Besides venture capitalists and business angels, the development of on-line platforms has created new opportunities for entrepreneurs to raise seed capital and for non-professional investors to disintermediate their investments (e.g., crowdfunding, cryptocurrencies).

 
BEF builds on the strengths of Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino research teams in the broad area of entrepreneurial finance to support the creation and dissemination of knowledge on the underlying processes and instruments that characterize the provision of funding to young, innovative and growth oriented companies.

 
The research activity of BEF focuses on the development of an integrated framework for understanding the dynamics of financing entrepreneurship, with a particular interest on topics related to angel, venture capital, and private equity finance, crowdfunding, cryptocurrencies and the connections to innovation financing, fintech and impact investing. Many of these issues are broad and extend beyond the financial sector to encompass socio-technological and cultural-political aspects. They have implications for regional economic development, innovation, and corporate finance. Therefore, the study of entrepreneurial finance lends itself to a multi-disciplinary research approach.