Just read:
"On average a dollar of venture capital appears to be three to four times more potent in stimulating patenting than a dollar of traditional corporate R&D. The estimates therefore suggest that venture capital, even though it on average amounted to less than 3% of corporate R&D in the US from 1983 to 1992, was responsible for a much greater share - perhaps 10% - of US industrial innovations in this decade"
From the excellent Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
A natural worry is that it looks at the relationship between venture capital and patenting rather than venture capital can innovation. It's highly probable that venture capitalists encourages entrepreneurs to protect their intellectual property and only invest if they feel the technology is suitably defensible.
One possible solution would be to look at the number of times a venture backed patent is cited. Higher-quality patents (ones that show true innovation) are cited more often than lower quality ones.
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