Brandeis International Business School

Prof. Debarshi Nandy honored with Rosenberg Chair

In inaugural lecture, the Barbara and Richard M. Rosenberg Professor of Global Finance discusses venture capital innovation

Prof. Debarshi Nandy was named the Barbara and Richard M. Rosenberg Professor of Global Finance.

Prof. Debarshi Nandy was named the Barbara and Richard M. Rosenberg Professor of Global Finance.

Venture capital-backed companies are relatively few in number, relative to the total number of registered corporations, but they dominate the U.S. corporate world.

That was the conclusion Prof. Debarshi Nandy presented during his inaugural lecture as the Barbara and Richard M. Rosenberg Professor of Global Finance at Brandeis International Business School.

An accomplished researcher and innovative professor, Nandy reviewed data from the last 30 years in an effort to quantify the outsized role venture capital can have on a company's overall value.

Nandy found that only a “minuscule” 0.2 percent of U.S. companies have received venture capital funding. And yet, these companies still manage to account for a whopping 76 percent of the total value of all publicly traded companies, while also spending 89 percent of all research and development dollars.

“There is a big impact arising from a very small number of firms,” said Nandy, who delivered his lecture virtually on Dec. 14 to dozens of colleagues and friends.

Nandy is the director of the International Business School’s Master of Science in Finance (MSF) program and a faculty co-director of the Rosenberg Institute of Global Finance. His academic research focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation; banking and financial intermediation; and corporate and household finance.

Nandy is also the architect of the International Business School’s India Initiative and the school’s partnership with the Boston-based startup incubator MassChallenge FinTech. A fixture at regional innovation events like Boston FinTech Week and the Nantucket Conference, he’s also an active board member, mentor and advisor to finance startups.

“In short, Debarshi is a model for how scholarly work can be integrated with practice,” said Dean Kathryn Graddy. “Such integration helps spark ground-breaking research. And it helps increase the outward visibility of both the International Business School and Brandeis University as a whole.”