ACCESS ICT, EBAN (European Business Angels Network) and Angel Capital Group held a conference on Tuesday, 31st of January, aiming at overviewing the activities of ACCESS ICT initiative and best practices. The initiative was started about two years ago. ACCESS ICT is a targeted initiative for early stage ICT SMEs and ICT research projects that have come through the European Union funded R&D Programmes (FP6 and FP7) which are looking for funding from Venture Capital Investors (including business angels, Venture Capital (VC) firms and corporate investors).
What is a Business Angel?
Business Angels are private investors who invest in unquoted small and medium sized businesses. They are often businessmen and women who have sold their business. They provide not only finance but experience and business skills. Business Angels invest in the early stage of business development filling, in part, the equity gap.
ACCESS ICT provides the necessary support to enable ICT innovations and SMEs to become investment-ready through specifically tailored coaching and mentoring. The project acts as a hub between ICT SMEs and investors (comprising business angels, venture capital firms and corporate investors) interested in accessing deals with strong IP and high growth potential.
ACCESS ICT Final Conference
Furthermore, they also highlighted the achievements and factors that were critical for the success of the initiative. The session went also through the sustainability of the project and has brought up discussions on the policy recommendations proposed by ACCESS ICT with the support of its Steering Group. As Horizon 2020 is actively being discussed in Europe, this is the right time to debate some of ACCESS ICT?s conclusions and involve the most relevant stakeholders from different sectors. The main part of the session was a round-table with selected discussants with the aim to contribute to the future of access to finance in Europe and especially to the commercialization and growth stages of European funded R&I. A draft of the recommendations was proposed and sent beforehand to all participants but everyone was invited to comment and improve the documents. More than 20 participants have participated and explained their experiences, among others the European Investment Fund and the Director of EUREKA.
About EBAN
EBAN is the representative in Brussels through direct and indirect membership of more than 250 business angel networks in Europe. These in turn federate some 20.000 angels, and receive about 40.000 business plans a year. EBAN brings together over 113 member organisations in 26 countries today.
Source: http://acpbusinessclimate.org/wordpress/2012/02/business-angels-in-brussels/
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