The aim of the initiative is to transfer the experience of angels from Western Europe to the countries of Eastern Europe by providing specialized training and access to information resources.
The initiative aims to encourage investment by individuals in small businesses in Eastern Europe to increase the flow of capital needed to scale high-tech start-ups. Six countries – Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Hungary and the Czech Republic – have been selected to launch the initiative, where local leaders will hold two-day training sessions to inspire angel investors. The first training session will be held in Poland, followed by sessions in the other countries before the end of the year.
The countries are selected on the basis of an analysis of the size of the imbalance between supply and demand of funding for start-ups. The aim is to train 20 new angels per country, with a focus on gender equality. It is expected that these angels will come together to combine their available funds to provide more financial support to start-ups. Resources are also provided to support the activities of these groups, such as a mentoring programme, a library of model contracts for structuring deals and support for links between business angels in Europe to stimulate co-investment.
The initiative is a continuation of an earlier project, from 2017, and is related to the large differences between the markets in Western Europe, on the one hand, and the less developed in terms of availability of angel capital markets of Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. While venture and angel capital investment in European start-ups is estimated at $7.3 billion in 2023, according to Crunchbase, only €395.9 million of this has been made in Eastern Europe. Not enough information is available on where the deals are taking place, but according to pan-European angel network EBAN (which has 100 member organisations), there are only 18 business angel networks in the six countries addressed by the initiative. By comparison, there are 83 such networks in France and 58 in the UK.
The aim of the initiative is to transfer the already existing experience in building and supporting the angel ecosystem in Eastern Europe. This is important as business angels provide not only capital but also expertise in specific industries, combined with the know-how and business contacts needed for start-ups.
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