Financing innovations by venture capital funds as a determinant of innovativeness of economy

The study attempts to define a role of venture capital funds in the aspect of creating innovativeness of economy. In the first place, the theoretical conditions of venture capital activity are discussed as well as their strong and weak points in the context of financing innovative enterprises. Then, the empirical data analysis concerning their investments in the European Union member states and the selected world economies is conducted. Further, on the basis of Kendall’s Tau correlation coefficient, a positive correlation between broadly understood venture capital investments and innovativeness of economy is proved which was stronger in the Community countries than considered together – European Union member states and their global competitors