IS VENTURE CAPITAL THE SOURCE OF FINANCING FOR MICRO-ENTERPRISES?

The current article examines the issue of financing the micro-enterprises of Latvia by venture capital funds. It considers the number of applications submitted by enterprises to venture capital funds, the number of investments and the amount of financing granted to enterprises in general and to micro-enterprises in particular. These indicators are compared with the indicators of micro-enterprise financing by commercial banks. The main research methodology is based on questionnaires, interviews, a survey and descriptive statistics. The research results demonstrate that venture capital is not a popular and available financial instrument for micro-enterprises. Nevertheless in 2013-2014, the share of microenterprises constituted 81.8% of the number and 60.4% of the amount of venture fund investments. But the sum of venture capital fund investments in micro-enterprises constituted about one percent in 2013 and about two percent in 2014 of the total amount of microenterprise financing by banks in Latvia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]