Startup Qualities as Influencing Factors in Funding Decision of Venture Capitalists: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Year 2019 marked the beginning of a tough era for all the people around the world with the outbreak of coronavirus disease that was first reported from Wuhan China. The coronavirus disease was later renamed as COVID-19 by the WHO on 11 February 2020. It tests the sustainability of many businesses around the world and unsurprisingly affect most startups around the world. The potential growth as well as sustainability of these startups becomes questionable to the investors or venture capitalists who had never experience such unprecedented event prior. In view of the current pandemic situation, it is important to explore the phenomenon and the underlying factors that affect the valuation of these investors in order to continuously provide financial support to the startup community. This paper conducts a systematic review of existing literature since the start of Covid-19 pandemic with the aim to unveil the qualities of startups that investors can rely on for the startup valuation purposes. This valuation results will eventually act as a basis towards the funding decision in startups. To achieve this objective, a systematic literature review is being conducted on a database of 217 articles to explore the qualities in startups that entice the investor to invest in them during Covid-19 pandemic. It is crucial for the review to be conducted to discover the startup qualities that investors are seeking within startups to ensure economic rebound during this period of uncertainty.