Turkey’s First Business Angel Network…

LabX founded Turkey’s first Business Angel Network and gathered an angel investor group of over 85 individuals. The EBAN (European Business Angel Network) membership contributes to accelerate and ease the process of taking local entrepreneurs and business angels to the international arena.

 

To become a member of the LabX Business Angel Network and have the privilege to access high potential and promising business ideas, please send us your personal information and CV and we will contact you shortly.

 

What is angel investment? Who is a business angel?

The concept of Angel Investment differentiates itself from other known investment types. Business angels are informal investors who provide capital, know-how and mentoring for early-stage startup companies and growing enterprises. Moreover, as they are also successful former entrepreneurs themselves, business angels add value to startups by providing valuable advice, experience and network connections. The success of this investment model can be traced to the emergence of today’s business phenomenon like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Apple, Youtube, Hotmail, Skype, all of which were initially financed by business angels.

Business angel groups include people who have a successful professional track coupled with a strong knowledge and financial background and this provides the grounds for a more firm approach for entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs usually turn to their friends and family for the required funding. As a result, friends and family members invest in the person that they trust and are familiar with, rather than in the idea itself. On the other hand, business angels consider and care about the business idea and the team that is going to successfully start up the venture and ensure financial return. When presenting the business idea to family and friends, most of the time a short summary is satisfactory. However, business angels not only require the business idea proposal but also a detailed business plan including targets, strategic plans, strengths and capabilities of the team and suggested return objectives.

Local business angels generally invest between TRY 20.000 and TRY 500.000. With this investment, they acquire an equity stake in the company and hold a position on the board. In the European early-stage investment market business angels invest around €80,000 per deal – in the case of UK it could even go up as high as £400,000 per deal.

There is large evidence in literature of the essential role played by business angels in supporting startup ventures. Alone in U.S.A., in the year 2005, $23 billion angel capital has been invested in 49.500 companies (entrepreneurs) which in return has created wealth and new jobs for 198.000 people. EU researches report that about 60% of business angels invest more than once therefore they are also referred to as habitual or serial investors. In this context, these figures disclose that becoming a business angel is a lifestyle choice of business professionals.