Heonyeol Jeong (University of Connecticut)
Presentations: Southern Finance Association (2026), Financial Management Association Asia/Pacific (2026)
Abstract: I study the relationship between venture capital partners' political donations and startup outcomes in the crypto-blockchain sector. Using a novel dataset linking partners' individual campaign contributions to federal legislators' crypto policy stances, I show that partners shift their giving toward pro-crypto policymakers after their first crypto-blockchain investment, and that recipients subsequently adopt more favorable stances. Startups backed by partners who support pro-crypto policymakers (policy-aligned partners) raise more follow-on capital, attract broader investor syndicates, and exit more successfully. Policy alignment predicts IPO success within partners' crypto portfolios but not their non-crypto exits, suggesting the association does not simply reflect partner quality. These findings indicate that political connections to sector-favorable policymakers are an economically meaningful investor attribute in markets where regulation directly shapes firm value.
Heonyeol Jeong (University of Connecticut), Yiming Qian (University of Connecticut), and Xiang Zheng (University of Connecticut)
Abstract: We study the relationship between limited partners' (LPs') AI adoption and financial disintermediation in private markets. Using a novel dataset linking institutional LP investors with their workforce, we show that LPs with higher shares of AI-related employees are significantly more likely to invest directly in portfolio companies, bypassing GP fund intermediation. We further show that AI adoption improves direct investment quality: portfolio companies directly invested by LPs before acquiring AI talent exhibit lower M&A exit rates than fund-delegated investments, but this disadvantage disappears after AI adoption. These findings indicate that AI lowers internal information-production costs for LPs to potentially substitute for the screening services traditionally provided by general partners.
Heonyeol Jeong (University of Connecticut)
Abstract: I study the relationship between private-market investors’ language skills and their career, fundraising, and investment outcomes. Using a novel dataset linking investors’ language proficiency to employment histories, institutional capital commitments, and PE/VC transactions, I examine whether multilingual investors advance differently within investment firms, attract capital from a broader set of limited partners, and invest across more culturally distant markets. I further test whether language skills predict deal selection and subsequent investment outcomes, and whether they mitigate frictions associated with cultural distance between investors and counterparties. These findings assess whether linguistic capability is an economically meaningful form of investor human capital that facilitates information production and relationship formation in private markets.