Call for Startups: Apply Now to The Egg’s International Pre-Acceleration Programme!

EBAN member Egg is inviting early-stage startups from across our network to apply for its fully funded, international pre-acceleration programme, taking place online from July 3rd to September 19th, 2025. Programme highlights include:

• 40+ hours of expert-led training in go-to-market strategy, financial planning, and investor readiness
• 1:1 mentoring with experienced founders, VCs, and sector specialists from Greece and international markets
• Investor pitch event
• Access to the Greek and EU innovation ecosystem

Programme Details:

• Start date: July 3rd, 2025
• Duration: 2 months (through September 19th, 2025)
• Eligibility: Early-stage startups from any sector
• Cost: Fully funded for selected participants

How to apply: Email info@theegg.gr to express your interest and receive guidance on the next steps.
More information: A detailed leaflet with the full program structure and curriculum is available here. 

This two-month programme offers not only strategic support and hands-on mentoring, but also direct exposure to investors and partners actively engaged in Greece’s growing innovation landscape. Whether you’re looking to refine your business model, prepare for funding, or expand into international markets, The Egg’s International Pre-Acceleration Program is your gateway to the next stage of growth. For questions or additional details, contact: info@theegg.gr

Looking Back at the BAN Manager Programme at EBAN Congress 2025

Brussels, 24 June 2025 

As the EBAN Annual Congress 2025 wrapped up in Copenhagen, one of the highlights was the launch of the BAN Manager Programme — a brand-new track designed specifically for the professionals behind Business Angel Networks (BANs). The track brought together network managers, ecosystem builders, and innovation leaders for two days of targeted discussions, peer learning, and strategic exchange.

The response? Overwhelmingly positive.

From the moment the sessions began, it was clear that BAN managers had been waiting for a space like this — a space to focus not only on startups and investment, but on strengthening the networks that support them.

Before the sessions kicked off, the programme opened with a private networking event — a bar exclusively reserved for BAN managers. This relaxed, informal space proved to be a powerful catalyst for building relationships. Conversations that started over drinks continued throughout the Congress, deepening collaboration and reinforcing the value of creating spaces tailored for network leaders.

The programme covered a range of critical topics focused on the sustainability and effectiveness of angel networks, from building strong member engagement to preparing for exit strategies. Below are the key sessions and their takeaways:

Managing your Member Base and your Dealflow 

Speakers:Sara Russick, David Russick, Roberta Rudokiene, Tiina Laisi-Puheloinen, and Tienko Rasker

This session quickly evolved into a lively and interactive dialogue, with audience members joining in to ask questions and share their own experiences. Speakers and participants explored strategies for building stronger communities within BANs, including the power of live meetups over virtual events. Examples like Angels & Beer gatherings by Leapfunder demonstrated how these interactions can boost member engagement and create real value.

Peer learning emerged as a key theme — reinforcing EBAN’s BAN Managers Club initiative, which aims to offer ongoing, member-exclusive knowledge exchange. 

The room was full, a clear indicator of the appetite for more sessions like this at future EBAN events.

Getting Deals Done Within Your Network and Beyond

Karin Künnapas, Nina Dremelj, Harri Tallin, Simone de Toni, Ulyana Shtybel, and Markus Kainz

Led by Harri Tallin’s innovative red/green card format, this session turned into a dynamic experience. Speakers and attendees debated real-life statements about co-investment, cross-border syndication, and deal execution. The interactive style made complex topics accessible and energized the room.

Short pitches from Karin Künnapas and Nina Dremelj shared insights from their work, including Karin’s reflections on Latitude59. Tech platforms Leva, Quoroom, and Gateway Ventures followed with 5-minute demos showcasing the tools they use to streamline dealflow. The blend of practical tech and strategic storytelling made this session a standout.

Strategically Planning for Exits

Caroline Amblard-Sai, Julian Von Hassel, and Janne Jormalainen

The final session of the programme looked beyond early-stage investing to one of the most complex areas for angel networks: exits. The panel explored how BANs can better prepare for and support successful outcomes, helping investors realise returns and reinforcing the long-term impact of the ecosystem.

Janne Jormalainen underlined that planning for exits should not be seen as a final step, but rather as something to consider from the very beginning of the investment journey. Without some idea of how and when an exit could happen, an investment may lack strategic direction. The conversation stressed the value of early alignment between investors and founders on exit scenarios, timelines, and growth strategies.

The session also addressed broader themes such as strategic planning, timing, and the evolving role of BANs in supporting portfolio companies throughout the exit journey.

 

A Platform for Collaboration and Growth

Beyond the panels and keynotes, the BAN Managers Programme created space for honest conversations about shared challenges — from member churn and engagement to accessing public funding and scaling operations internationally.

– “Very open discussions”, “Real Stories shared”, ” Talking honestly and openly about current problems BANs are facing”

One of the most valued aspects of the programme was the opportunity for informal networking among BAN leaders. Many expressed their appreciation for the collaborative atmosphere and the rare chance to exchange ideas with peers facing similar hurdles.

The success of the BAN Manager Programme in Copenhagen marks the beginning of what will become a recurring feature in EBAN’s future initiatives. As the European startup ecosystem continues to evolve, so must the networks that power early-stage innovation. The BAN Manager Programme is EBAN’s answer to that evolution — and we’re just getting started.

Find out the highlights of investment in early-stage startups: activity and trends, prepared by the team of the Business Angels Network of the IESE Business School – University of Navarra, with the collaboration of HF LEGAL and SpainCap.

EBAN Congress 2025 Wrap Up

Brussels, 17 June 2025 

Between 2-5 June, the EBAN Annual Congress 2025 brought together 400+ angel investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and thought leaders from across Europe and beyond in the vibrant city of Copenhagen. Co-organised with DanBAN and InvestEU, this event focused on crucial missions: scaling European innovation to global impact, spotlighting women’s entrepreneurship, lifesciences, sportstech, and defencetech & dual use.

EBAN Congress 2025 Key Highlights

Strong Policy Focus on Scale-Up Funding

This year’s Congress spotlighted the scale-up gap as a top policy priority. While early-stage angel investment in Europe remains strong, challenges persist in accessing follow-on capital. Policymakers, fund managers, and business angels called for:

1. Stronger involvement of institutional investors (e.g., pension funds and insurance companies)
2. Clearer incentives for co-investment across borders
3. Regulatory reforms to unlock private capital for growth-stage ventures

Deep Dives into Space, Defence & Dual-Use Tech

The DefenceTech and Space Forum brought together investors, agencies, and founders to discuss Europe’s growing role in dual-use innovation. Key takeaways included:

1. Europe needs faster procurement pipelines for defense startups

2. Agencies like ESA and EDF are critical partners in scaling

3. Angels and VCs must adapt to new risk models in deeptech

Spotlighting Women’s Entrepreneurship

Diversity and inclusion took center stage with powerful sessions dedicated to elevating women in tech and investment. Highlights included:

1. The Women TechEU Pitching Session, showcasing female-led deeptech ventures from across Europe.
2. The UN Women EXPO Capital Quest, amplifying the voices of women entrepreneurs from Europe and Central Asia working toward global impact.
3. A standout panel on Women in Startups and VC, featuring Rita Anson, Katja Ruhnke, Phaedria Marie St. Hilaire, and Delina Ibrahimaj, Albania’s Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and Business Climate, who shared powerful insights on closing the gender gap in funding and leadership.

Empowering Business Angel Networks.

During our BAN Manager Track created a dedicated forum for Europe’s angel network leaders to connect, collaborate, and elevate best practices across the ecosystem. The track emphasised the need to professionalise BAN operations, increase access to EU and public funding, and develop tools that support the long-term sustainability of angel networks. Participants also called for deeper cross-border alignment, and for more recognition of BAN managers’ strategic role in Europe’s innovation ecosystem. Key discussions focused on:

1. Strategies for growing and engaging BAN membership and streamlining internal processes to manage dealflow efficiently
2. Supporting angel syndication and helping deals get done as well as enabling successful exits for angel investors through targeted support
3. Strengthening international collaboration through cross-border syndication model

Championing SportsTech

The EBAN Sports Community led the way in promoting early-stage investment in SportsTech through:

1. A dedicated panel session on the SportsTech startup and investment landscape. Thank you to everyone who were part of this special programme: Alberto Bichi, Ignat Bobrovich, Niels Henrik Sørensen, Emiliano Marcondes, Carsten Couchouron, David Rosa Mañez, and EBAN Sports co-chairs Audra Elena Shallal & Juan Fuentes Fernández
2. The EBAN Explorer Sportstech Track, where the EBAN Sports Community introduced its mission and hosted a programme on early-stage Sportstech investment, trends, and the role of athlete angel investors.
3. The launch of the EBAN Sports Manifesto, outlining Europe’s opportunity to lead in performance tech, fan engagement, health, and sustainability 👉 Read the manifesto

Spotlight on Women’s Health and MedTech

The Life Sciences Track at this year’s EBAN Congress brought together pioneers from across Europe to explore how healthcare systems, investment models, and innovation frameworks must evolve. Thank you to Ulla Sommerfelt for organising this amazing track, and to the speakers that brought it to life. Some highlights include: 

1. Bogi Eliasen called for a fundamental shift in how we design health systems, moving from acute care to long-term, data-driven, and patient-centered models.
2. Jon I. Bergsteinsson broke down the barriers to MedTech investing, offering practical strategies to navigate regulation, timelines, and risk with smarter capital deployment.
3. The insightful panel, moderated by Caroline Sai, and Jon I. Bergsteinsson, Andrew Stretton, and Diana Arsovic as panelists, emphasized the need for inclusive ecosystems, stronger validation frameworks, and cross-sector cooperation to bridge persistent funding gaps, especially in women’s health, and drive the next wave of impactful innovation.

Startup Competition Winners

Throughout the Congress, over 30 startups pitched across multiple sessions — and these standout innovators took top honours:

Space & Defence Investor Forum:

– TALOS

– Sternula  

– Revolv Space

Innovation Showcase:

– X1 Pipeline

Women TechEU Pitching Session:

– S.Lab 

UN Women Capital Quest:

– NEUROPILOT 

– two runner-ups EZSpeech by Mila4AI and Biobalance

EBAN Sports Pitching Session:

– NDURE 

NDURE will go on to pitch again at EAIS25 in Brussels (Oct 28–29)!

We hope to hear your success stories soon and of course to have you pitch at EBAN events again in the future!

Gala Award Winners

The event reached its peak at the Gala Dinner Awards, and we couldn’t be prouder of our community. Huge congratulations to our winners:

💫 Angel of the Year – Janne Jormalainen

💫 Best Performing EBAN Member – HBAN

💫 Best Performing New EBAN Member – SweBAN – Swedish Business Angel Networks

💫 Deal of the Year – Silo.ai exit by Mikko Leino and Harry Brade

💫 Thesis Award – Davide Viglialoro from the University of East Anglia | Politecnico di Torino

Huge Thanks

A huge thank you to all the speakers who shared their expertise, to our startup juries, and to the hundreds of attendees who brought such energy and curiosity to the event. Thank you also to Danish Business Angels – DanBAN for hosting us, and to InvestEU for supporting yet another EBAN event. We’re especially grateful to our partners who helped make this happen:

🔹 Danish Board of Business Development

🔹 UN Women Europe and Central Asia

🔹 Women TechEU

🔹 Ready2Scale 

🔹 EUVC

🔹 futureSAX – die Innovationsplattform des Freistaates Sachsen

🔹 Dealum

🔹 Cassini

🔹 Nordea

🔹 Sports Lab Copenhagen

🔹 Freeage Pro

🔹 Copenhagen Fintech

🔹 Giv Effektivt

🔹 EIFO

The biggest thank you goes to our EBAN team as well as DanBAN and InvestEU for making this event happen! 👏

What’s Next for EBAN?

The momentum continues! We’re thrilled to announce the next destinations for the EBAN Annual Congress:

🔹 Vilnius in 2026, hosted with our partners at LitBAN – Lithuanian Business Angel Network

🔹 Leipzig in 2027, hosted by FutureSax in collaboration with BAND – Business Angels Deutschland e.V. and BAM! – Business Angels Mitteldeutschland e.V.

But first, we’ll see you at the European Angel Investment Summit in Brussels this October 28–29 for EAIS25 — a high-level gathering of investors, policy makers, and founders you won’t want to miss!

Check Out Congress 2025 Photos

EBAN SportsTech Manifesto: Leading the Charge for Innovation in European Sports

Preamble

As a vital community within the European Business Angels Network (EBAN), EBAN Sports stands at the intersection
of sports and innovation, championing a future where technology elevates athletic performance and enriches fan
experiences. Our manifesto is a call to action for all stakeholders—investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and sports
enthusiasts—to unite in fostering a robust SportsTech ecosystem that drives growth, inclusivity, and sustainability
across Europe. Together, we will harness the power of innovation to shape the future of sports and create lasting societal
impacts.

1. The Strategic Importance of Investing in SportsTech

SportsTech is not just a market; it is a transformative movement that integrates technology with health, entertainment,
and data analytics. Our commitment to investing in SportsTech unlocks significant benefits that extend beyond the
playing field:
• Transforming Athletic Performance: Innovative solutions such as wearables, AI-driven analytics, and recovery
technologies are revolutionizing how athletes train, compete, and recover, pushing the boundaries of human
performance.
• Revolutionizing Fan Engagement: The integration of immersive technologies like virtual reality and mobile
applications is creating unparalleled fan experiences, deepening connections between sports and their audiences.
• Promoting Health and Wellbeing: By leveraging gamification and fitness technologies, SportsTech encourages active
lifestyles, contributing to healthier communities and reducing healthcare costs across Europe. WHO (World Health
Organization) developed an economic analysis which predicts that nearly 500 million new cases of preventable major
NCDs (Non-Communicable Diseases) will occur globally between 2020 and 2030 if the prevalence of physical
inactivity does not change. These NCDs will cost an estimated US $300 billion in healthcare costs alone in that 11 year
period, or about US $27 billion per year. These estimates do not include the significant indirect costs including loss of
productivity.
• Driving Sustainability: Advancements in materials and practices within SportsTech support environmental goals,
ensuring a greener future for the sports industry and aligning with global sustainability initiatives.

2. Building an Ecosystem of Innovation and Collaboration

The impact of SportsTech extends across various sectors, fostering innovation and collaboration that benefit society as a
whole:
• Advancing Healthcare: Enhanced training and recovery protocols not only improve athlete health but also lead to
better outcomes for the general population, aligning with public health objectives.
• Integrating SportsTech into Education: Educational institutions can incorporate sports technology into curricula,
preparing future generations for careers in this dynamic field and ensuring a skilled workforce for tomorrow’s
challenges.
• Empowering Professional Athletes: Enabling athletes to understand the value of SportsTech and reinvest in their own
ecosystem and industry.
• Collaborating with Sports Organizations: Working with clubs, leagues, and federations to integrate sports technology.
• Enhancing Urban Development: City initiatives could incorporate SportsTech to create active, vibrant communities
that promote public health and well-being, also to dynamise and grow its start-up community and position themselves
as sports tech clusters.

3. Leveraging European Programs for Growth

EBAN SportsTech is committed to maximizing opportunities provided by European Union programs designed to spur
innovation and investment:
• Horizon Europe: Access to funding for research and innovation projects that can propel SportsTech initiatives
forward, enhancing competitiveness on a global scale.
• Erasmus+: Creating educational partnerships that foster skill development and knowledge exchange in SportsTech,
enhancing collaboration across Europe.
• European Regional Development Fund: Supporting regional projects that boost local economies through SportsTech
innovation, driving inclusive development.

4. An Ambitious Call to Action

We call upon all members of the European Business Angels Network and beyond to take decisive action:
• Invest Boldly and Responsibly: Recognize the transformative potential of SportsTech and commit resources to
innovative projects that create value for athletes, fans, and communities.
• Foster Collaborative Ecosystems: Encourage partnerships among startups, established companies, sports
organizations, and research institutions to accelerate development and commercialization of breakthrough SportsTech
solutions.
• Advocate for Strategic Support: Engage with EU programs and initiatives to secure the funding and resources
essential for amplifying the impact of SportsTech investments across Europe.

• Join the EBAN Sports Community:
If you are already a member of the European Business Angels Network, join the EBAN Sports community to be part of
this transformative movement (https://test.artmedia.ee/eban-live/eban-sports/).

If you are not yet an EBAN member, consider joining EBAN and the EBAN Sports community to contribute to the
growth of the SportsTech ecosystem in Europe.

Conclusion
The future of sports is intrinsically tied to the fusion of technology and innovation. By investing in SportsTech through
the EBAN community, we empower athletes, enhance fan experiences, and create a sustainable and prosperous sports
landscape for generations to come.

Join us in this bold endeavor to position Europe as the epicenter of SportsTech innovation.

Together, we can lead the charge in harnessing the power of sports technology to drive economic growth, promote
inclusivity, and inspire healthier, more active lives.

Let us unite to transform the future of sports—where vision meets action, and every investment paves the way for
success.