Do venture capitalists balk at research, innovation?

Do venture capitalists perceive risk to fund research and innovation or are they just opportunistic?

How does one build a company even if no venture capitalist is ready to fund you or rather what is the leverage one would get from a venture capitalist apart from money?

These were some of the questions students sought answers from the panelists at a seminar on 'Emerging Trends or Opportunities in IT & Biotech Sectors' conducted by The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TIE) at GITEX India 2006 here on Thursday.

Explaining the challenges in the BPO sector faced by some of the start-up companies, V Chandrasekar, executive director, Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED), Indian School of Business (ISB), said, "The first-generation BPO start-ups such as Infowavz, Tracmail and Epicentre are on the verge of closure for want of more venture capital funding. Transworks and Firstring have already closed down."