A dataset of types of venture capitalists (VCs) in China’s market between 1978 and 2021

This dataset identifies the types of 49,187 venture capitalists (VCs) that have invested in China between 1978 and 2021. Specifically, a VC can be labelled as the following types: GVC (public agency-affiliated, state-owned enterprise-affiliated), CVC (corporate VC), IVC (independent VC), BVC (bank-affiliated VC), FVC (financial/non-bank-affiliated VC), UVC (university-affiliated VC), and PenVC (pension-fund-affiliated VC). For more information, please contact Dr Jin Chen, University of Nottingham Ningbo China (Email: [e-mail]).<b>匹配说明 (2026.04.13)</b>： 用户可从 CVSource 下载投融资数据，并优先使用其提供的“投资方简称”与本数据库进行匹配。具体而言，建议将 CVSource 的“投资方简称”先匹配至我们 ChinaVCtype.csv 中的 VC_fullname，并同时结合 Alias.csv 中的 Alias 字段进行补充匹配，因为 Alias.csv 专门整理了 VC 的别名，以提高用户的匹配准确性。需要特别注意的是，请不要直接使用 CVSource 当前版本中的“投资方全称”与本数据库进行匹配。这是因为我们的数据收集与处理主要基于 CVSource 早期版本，当时其投融资数据中普遍使用的是机构简称；CVSource “投资方全称”是在我们发表数据库后新增的字段，因此其口径与命名方式与本数据库未必一致，直接据此匹配可能会导致较多误配或漏配。我们的论文也说明了，CVSource 历史上大量采用简称，研究团队正是通过多步清洗和别名整合，才进一步识别和统一 VC 的全称；同时，Alias.csv 的设计目的之一也是帮助用户改进匹配效果。<b>Matching note </b><b>(2026.04.13)</b>: Users may download investment data from CVSource and should use their variable “Investor Abbreviation” as the primary key to match with our database. Specifically, we recommend first matching CVSource’s “Investor Abbreviation” to our “VC_fullname” in ChinaVCtype.csv, and then using the “Alias” variable in Alias.csv as a supplementary source to improve matching accuracy. This is because Alias.csv compiles alternative names of VCs and is intended to facilitate more accurate matching. Please do not directly use CVSource’s current “Investor Full Name” variable to match with our “VC_fullname”. Our data collection and processing were primarily based on an earlier version of CVSource, in which investment records generally used abbreviated investor names. The “Investor Full Name” variable was introduced after we had published our dataset. As a result, its naming rules may not be fully consistent with those used in our dataset, and direct matching based on that variable may lead to substantial mismatches or unmatched cases. As explained in our paper, CVSource historically relied heavily on abbreviated names, and our research team identified VC full names only through a multi-step process of name cleaning and alias consolidation. Alias.csv is further developed to help users improve matching accuracy.<br>