<p>National venture capitalist (VC) ecosystems are not isolated from each other, and foreign VC species may cross borders when pursuing valuable investment opportunities. The present research demonstrates that VC investments inside or outside VCs’ domestic ecosystems play a significant role in the target ventures’ valuation. VCs trade off familiarity of their domestic ecosystem for valuation. Our results indicate that familiarity with the domestic ecosystem reduces risk, and purely domestic deals consequently carry significantly positive valuation premia. Cross-border deals, on the other hand, have a significantly negative impact on valuation. However, certain comparative ecosystem characteristics, such as institutional shareholder protections and an ecosystem’s comparative competitive advantage, as well as an ecosystem’s relative saturation in terms of money on the market, partially offset the observed cross-border valuation penalty. </p>