European angels join Science|Business network

The European Business Angels Network, an umbrella organisation for “angel” investor clubs across Europe, has agreed to join the Science|Business Network of prominent European professional and research institutions, in an effort to bridge the gap between the scientific and investing communities in Europe.

A “disconnect” between inventors and investors is often cited as among the fundamental problems of the European marketplace – the so-called European Paradox, in which great ideas fail to access finance, or originate in Europe but are exploited abroad. In fact, the community of European “angels” is growing quickly now from Lisbon to Ljubljana. There are now 211 business angel networks operational across Europe, with the most mature markets located in the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Finland, and the Netherlands. 

Angel investors are high net-worth individuals who apply their capital and business experience to help entrepreneurs test their ideas, develop their companies and – if all goes well – generate new jobs for the European economy. Investments range typically from €25,000 to €400,000 per deal depending on the maturity of the market and the sector of investment, with an average investment across Europe at around €150,000.

With this agreement to collaborate, EBAN and Science|Business are taking some concrete measures to help European technology entrepreneurs and angel investors find each other, and build new businesses.

“It is essential to find ways to bring more investors to the marketplace and to introduce new technologies and innovations to potential angels. EBAN is looking forward to its collaboration with Science Business, which will help to raise awareness on the role of business angels for European economies in particular in funding innovative high potential start-ups,” says Claire Munck, General Manager at EBAN.

EBAN joins three other professional organisations, and nine leading European universities, in the Science|Business Network to promote enterprise in science. They are EuropaBio, the umbrella organization for the European biotechnology industry; the London Technology and London Biotechnology Networks; the University of Cambridge, ETH-Zurich, Karolinska Institutet, Imperial College London, University College London, TU Delft, Chalmers University of Technology, ParisTech and the Politecnico di Milano.