As patentes como sinal de qualidade para startups alcançarem investimentos de venture capital – uma revisão sistemática da literatura

The startups environment is characterized by uncertainties and information asymmetry. At the same time, these newborn companies need financing in order to grow and evolve their business models. Thus, quality signals, such as patents, affect a startup's ability to attract venture capital funding. In this context, the understanding of how this signals (patents) and other related ones are evaluated and considered for decision by venture capitalists (VC) becomes essential for the entrepreneurs to be able to plan their actions. Patents go beyond signaling the technological quality of a startup and the purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between startups holding patents and achieving venture capital investments. Most studies link patents with positive relations to capital access. Through a systematic literature review, we find that patents, as well as other related quality signals as trademarks and prototypes, affect both directly and indirectly the decision-making of venture capitalists.