Fostering Investments in Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain in Europe
Empirical research led by the European Investment Fund shows that America is currently dominating the AI market. Europe, on the other hand, seems to be lagging behind global markets. The EU-AI/Blockchain Investment Fund aims to enhance the access to finance, enabling European AI/blockchain SME’s and startups to innovate and take bigger risks.
Download the report to learn more about the Funds objectives:
Become certified by joining the Funding Expert Academy. Created by Nikolaos Floratos, EU funds and research expert, the academy is a platform to master these complex topics in an effective, quick and entertaining way.
Follow courses on the following subjects:
- ERC Training: Live eCourse on 29 Jan 2021, 09:00 – 17:00 CET
- EU Funding Projects Planning & Management: Live eCourse on 10 February 2021, 09:00 – 17:00 CET
- Developing Successful Horizon Europe Proposals & Strategies with Live Q&A Sessions
- Financial Management of European Funded Projects and EC Auditing
Register and receive a Specialization Certificate upon completion. EBAN Members are awarded a 50% discount on the purchase price of any of the live e-Courses on European Research and on EU funds offered via my Academy!
The Business Angel of the Year Award (BAY), occurring on February 15th 2021, recognizes the most outstanding, engaged, and active private investors who play a significant role in supporting the startup ecosystem in Poland. Established by COBIN Angels, the largest professional association of business angels in Poland, the award strengthens the recognition of angel investing as not only a viable way of allocating capital but also a formidable career path.
Every year, the business community of Polish entrepreneurs, top managers, startup founders, venture capitalists, and other investors, nominate the most distinguished early-stage, high-risk investors, who demonstrated their dedication to bolstering innovations and developing young companies.
The nominating process is open to everyone who wishes to indicate a private investor embodying the qualities of collaboration, business acumen, and expertise. It is also possible to nominate yourself.
As we enter the New Year and start looking ahead towards 2021 and beyond, EBAN is looking to expand more than ever, welcoming new members to our community. Baltic Technology Ventures, a recent addition to our network, is a platform connecting innovation with expertise and experience, giving wings to scalable and ambitious Baltic Tech innovations to build international and sustainable business unicorns. EBAN caught up with BTV’s CEO Mr. Gene Zolotarev to discuss the various aspects of their mission as the only exchange traded VC investor in the Baltic region, and how their uniqueness is an asset in the eyes of investors and companies alike.
What kinds of companies do you invest in, and what are some of your portfolio companies today?
BTV invests in scalable technology companies across the Baltics, focusing on seed and early-stage investment. Our investment thesis is to back companies in the post-revenue, pre-series A stage, which places us on the optimal part of the curve with high upside and limited downside. Typically, companies may have already gone through an accelerator or received third-party investment, and they have proven their product-market fit. Currently, BTV has a portfolio of seven tech companies, all of which have an excellent growth potential both regionally and beyond, fueled by a strong management team.
You have chosen the Baltic states as your geographic focus. What are the most exciting opportunities in the region?
In the past few years, the Baltic states have emerged as an innovative powerhouse in Europe and continue to display tremendous progress every year. The region has produced more unicorns per capita than anyone else. There are a multitude of exciting tech start-ups/companies which create value in the fields of software, technology, energy, biotech, data security, media, and communications. It is with the abundance of tech talent, state support and low cost of doing business that the Baltics offer one of the best risk-reward value propositions for investors and startups.
BTV launched in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak which hit the VC investment landscape. How did it affect your deal flow and what does BTV’s current growth look like?
If one asset class benefitted from this outbreak, it is technology. VC tends to be tech-biased. As a result, we’ve seen a lot of positive developments in the VC world, new records being set in funding, valuations of startups are ever-increasing. The investment universe has realized that VC is an asset class that is going to go from strength to strength. Moreover, our unique positioning in the ecosystem allowed us to close multiple deals in few months and our deal flow is continuing to increase. One of the great indicators of our rapid development is BTV’s stock price which went up by 1800% during the pandemic. We believe we’re just at the beginning of our growth cycle.
What value do you bring to your portfolio companies, other than capital?
BTV portfolio companies benefit in many ways, besides funding. They have direct access to our investors and their networks. We also leverage our expertise and network to help companies increase sales globally, gain access to industry professionals and attract third-party investment. Just recently, we introduced a portfolio company to one of the top motorcycle racers in the world who will help with product development and marketing. The value of such partnerships is immense. Our hands-on approach aims to generate tangible results and help our companies scale in the most efficient way in the shortest time frame.
BTV is the only exchange traded VC investor in the region. What does it mean for investors and how does it differ from the traditional VC model?
BTV is harnessing a new model, in which the barrier to entry to venture capital has been lowered, first by crowdfunding VC firms, by revenue-based investors, and even by private equity firms that have started to go upstream. BTV investors can access the full economic upside of our portfolio companies with no management or success fees, no lockup and no investment minimum. On the other hand, traditional VC investing usually ties up investors’ capital for 7-12 years and is subject to various fees and carried interest while getting access to the same deal flow. BTV’s shareholders get exposure to all of our portfolio companies, and the ability to co-invest with us in our pipeline of fully vetted tech start-ups. Anyone around the world can buy BTV shares through Nasdaq Baltic Exchange members/brokers.
Why is being exchange-traded attractive to your limited partners?
Investors can get involved with BTV by either purchasing its shares or through co-investment opportunities in specific portfolio companies. In the first way, we offer secure and transparent investing – financials are fully audited, there is regulatory oversight under Nasdaq. With BTV, investors can get exposure to the entire BTV portfolio and benefit from our companies’ growing valuations, without the long lockup seen in traditional VC funds. In the case of the latter, we welcome investors interested in any of our portfolio companies to contact us and BTV will facilitate their participation in funding rounds.
Tell us more about the SPO. Why is it a good opportunity for investors to join right now?
This is an early stage of our corporate development and looking at other exchange listed peer group investors, we see a huge upside. The Baltic startup ecosystem is rapidly evolving and SPO presents a great opportunity for investors to get exposure to VC in a more flexible way.
What’s in the cards for BTV in 2021 after the completion of the SPO?
We will use new share capital to invest and develop more exciting companies that meet our investment criteria. We have presently 15 startups in the pipeline with great potential where BTV can contribute a great deal of value through our network and contacts.
Interested? Find out more about Baltic Tech Ventures here: https://www.baltictechventures.com/
DanBAN has great news! FT, The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority has approved the registration application for DanBAN’s AIF fund, called DanBAN Co-investment Fund I K/S. The 5mill € fund, which is projected to close in February 2021, will act as sidecar fund to the 30-40 DanBAN angel syndicates that are formed every year.
DanBAN’s long term objective is to launch such a fund every year. This will give their members, including future members, the opportunity to invest 100.000€ and gain a portfolio of 30-40 investments. Another milestone for the network’s development!
Horizon Europe, the European Union’s next research & innovation investment programme replacing Horizon 2020, has exciting things in store for the entrepreneurship ecosystem. The programme will have a budget of around €95.5 billion for 2021-2027 to drive a green, healthy, and resilient Europe.
Horizon Europe is focusing on strengthening innovation in Europe through three pillars:
- European Innovation Council – €10 billion in budget funding for emerging and breakthrough innovations
- European innovation ecosystem – connecting key shareholders (academia, industry, different levels of the public sector, and civil society)
- European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) – increasing the regional impact of Knowledge and Innovation Communities
EIC, the EU’s new investment agency, is set to become Europe’s biggest venture investor in the next few years
The EIC will receive over €10 billion in budget to support emerging and breakthrough innovations in SMEs, start-ups, and midcaps to foster market-creating innovation.
It will be the one-stop shop for enabling inventors, innovators and investors to bring the most promising ideas to application, and will support the scaling-up of innovative start-ups and companies. It is open for ideas in any field of innovation, all year long. So far, 240 SMEs were funded since 2018 with up to €2.5million each. Learn more about the programme’s actions and innovation funding.
EIC, the EU’s new investment agency, is set to become Europe’s biggest venture investor in the next few years
The EIC will receive over €10 billion in budget to support emerging and breakthrough innovations in SMEs, start-ups, and midcaps to foster market-creating innovation.
It will be the one-stop shop for enabling inventors, innovators and investors to bring the most promising ideas to application, and will support the scaling-up of innovative start-ups and companies. It is open for ideas in any field of innovation, all year long. So far, 240 SMEs were funded since 2018 with up to €2.5million each. Learn more about the programme’s actions and innovation funding.
EIT- Increasing the regional impact of Knowledge and Innovation Communities
European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) with a proposed budget of €3 billion euros on bringing key actors (research, education and business) together around a common goal for nurturing innovation. The EIT will boost innovation increasing the impact of its activities and by helping 750 higher education institutions become more innovative, supporting 30 000 entrepreneurial students, bringing 4 000 innovations to the market and powering 700 start-ups. EIT will launch two new Knowledge and Innovation Communities in the coming years, one operating in the field of the Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries (2022) and one on Water, Marine and Maritime Sectors and Ecosystems. Learn more here.
AEBAN, the Spanish Association for Business Angels, has extended it’s Award Categories this year. Networks all through Europe can now enter with the chance to win Network with Best Deal or Best Crossborder Investment in Spain.
The four Award Categories are as follows:
- Spanish Business Angel Network with the best Deal
- Best Spanish Business Angel Divestment
- European Business Angel Network with the best Deal
- Best European Business Angel Crossborder Investment in Spain
