Abstract: Innovation is an important strategic choice to help start-up companies cross the “valley of death” and achieve sustainable innovative development. However, due to the disadvantages of being “new” and “weak”, the innovation resources and governance experience of start-up companies are relatively insufficient, which restricts the smooth progress of innovation activities. CVC is a new equity financing method derived from IVC, which can effectively alleviate the resource and governance constraints of start-up enterprises to carry out innovative activities. This paper takes the venture capital events of listed companies before the D round investment from 2009 to 2021 as samples to empirically study the impact of CVC on start-up companies innovation, and verifies the mechanism of resource empowerment and governance empowerment between CVC and start-up companies innovation. It is found that CVC can better meet the innovation needs of start-up companies and can significantly promote the innovation of start-up companies. Further research shows that CVC alleviates the constraint of innovation resources and achieves resource empowerment by providing financial resources, non-financial resources and innovative human resources support for start-up companies. CVC provides governance experience and governance decision support for start-up companies by appointing directors and supervisors to reduce the cost of innovation system and achieve governance empowerment. Resource empowerment and governance empowerment are the intermediary variables that influence the innovation of start-up companies. These conclusions theoretically deepen the understanding of the effect and mechanism of CVC in the context of China’s start-up companies innovation, and provide useful enlightenment for all kinds of enterprises to carry out CVC activities and make innovation policies in practice.

Key words: corporate venture capital, start-up companies innovation, resource empowerment, governance empowerment