British Columbia is taking a leaf out of the federal government's playbook with its announcement Tuesday of a $100-million technology innovation fund to fuel the venture capital market in the province.

"We have to find ways to ensure there are more success stories in tech, in this city and across the province," Premier Christy Clark said in announcing the fund at an event at mobile ecommerce company Mobify's Vancouver headquarters. "But it's difficult to get a tech company started.

"Tech companies need four things: They need talent, they need markets, they need ideas and they need money. All of those things are areas where the government can't do it all but government can support making sure that it happens."

Government-sponsored venture capital is a widely used model, both in Canada and in other countries. James Brander, a professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, co-authored a study earlier this year on the international record of government support for venture capital.

"As it happens government support of venture capital finance in the high-tech area is very common around the world," he said. "Governments all over the place are in this business, including the government of Canada."

Brander said his study's findings may come as a surprise to people who expect such government spending isn't productive.

"What surprised me and surprised a lot of people who normally study this stuff is that the record of governments in this area is not bad," he said. "A lot of people expected it would be a waste of money.

"But this kind of investment has often worked out to be pretty good."

Brander said the design and implementation of such programs is very important to their success.

"It's quite possible this . . . might be a good investment," he said. "A lot of government investments, you could say it's a political deal, it doesn't make economic sense — this is not one of those."

Bill Tam, president and chief executive of the British Columbia Technology Industry Association, was among tech leaders who welcomed the announcement.

"It is such a super exciting day for us . . . . I think this announcement is very much about job creation and investing in the economic growth we see for the tech sector going forward," he said in a speech at the event.

"This is probably the most sizable single venture capital investment in the history of British Columbia in this area," said in a later interview. "There are many other jurisdictions that have done similar things. The B.C. government has consulted far and wide and they have taken the best of practices in other jurisdictions into account."

In the most recent example, the federal government committed $400 million in its Venture Capital Action Plan, aimed at revitalizing the venture capital sector.

Among the initiatives that have come from that is the NorthLeaf Venture Catalyst Fund, a $300-million fund with private and public investment, including funds from the Canadian and Ontario governments along with institutional investors.