2. Introduction
Dr. Silke Horáková, PhD
• Commercial Banking, Investment Banking
(Asset Management), Project Finance,
• Private Equity SME
• start ups/ early stage
3. Foreword
There is an asymmetry of information between
entrepreneurs and investors
It’s not only a question of access to money but also
a question of life cycle of a company and about …
sales and market penetration
Investment readiness is needed
All money is not the same
4. Financing Cycle of a Company
• friends and family = seed capital, start-up
• business angels = start-up, early stage
• venture capital / debt = expansion, buy-outs
• financial markets (private & public)
• strategic partners
5. Risk/Financing Relationship
Capital Needs
IPO
High Low
Risk Risk Formal
Venture
Capital Angels help
Business fill the
Angels
Friends, ‘Equity Gap’
Family &
Founders
Time
0
Seed Start-up Early Growth Sustained Growth
6. What is a Business Angel?
Business Angel =Private individual investing own
wealth in early stage businesses AND own expertise
and network of contacts (EBAN)
• Investment 25 000 - 250 000 euro
• Willing to share their managerial skills, specialist knowledge
and networks
• No sector preference
• Often prefer to invest in their region of residence
• Seeking profit, but also fun
• Usually total investments below 25% of wealth
7. What “sort”of Business Angel?
Motivation Drivers…
Entrepreneur angel Lotto investor
Guardian angel
“job-seeker”
Tax driven investor
Archangel
Wealth maximising angel
Serial lead investor Virgin angel
Passive portfolio builder
Love money
8. Role of the Angel Investor
• Partner for discussions – strategy/ business
model/ know how
• Contacts
• Financial control
• Exit
9. Investment Strategy
• 1-5 investments you want to get heavily involved
(hands on)
• Portfolio investment (hands off)
• One sector or a spread of sectors
• High tech/low tech? how “green“ are you?
• One stage or a spread of stages
• Local or national or even international?
• Co-investors? (VC, BA, experts)
• Deal Structure/Instruments/ How to earn money?
10. “Attractive” Investments
• Innovative business idea/Unique position on the market
(Seed- or start up phase)
• Developed product / service with sales
• Current & comprehensive Business Plan
• High growth / scaleable / strong business forecast
• Angel involvement welcome
• Realistic pre-money value
• Strong committed management team !!!
11. How to approach a partnership with an BA?
Perspective of Investor
• Create a relationship, confidence – investment in
people, convince with your personality
(complementary team)
• Perfect knowledge of your business, market and your
competition
• Have a vision (and ideas how to get there)
• Demonstrate your business model and a clear
competitive advantage
• Be either 50% cheaper or 50% better
• Be open to advice
• Valuation !!
12. Valuation – a critical issue
• Major problem: high degree of uncertainty
• Use of “classical valuation techniques”? (Pay
back period, NPV, IRR) - quality of data
• Exit multiples
• How to take into account different views of
entrepreneur and investor?
13. How to find Angel Investors in the
Czech Republic
• business angel networks
(www.aia.cz,www.bids.cz
(BANET),www.bacz.cz, www.ceag.cz)
• small business consultants
• CzechInvest Financni fora, Investicni fora
• EBAN/Easy Project
14. Economic Importance of BA Investments
Originally from US:
250.000 business angels invested in 2005 an overall amount
of 24 billion US$
Finance ca. 60% of all American Technology Start-up’s
Europe: estimate 2006:
50.000/75.000 angels investors
2-3 billion€ invested (10% of the American BA activities)*
* According to EBAN (European Angel Network) estimates
15. Sector distribution - UK experience
Deal size typically under £250,000, but can be upto £1m
median investment per angel is £25,000*
About 20.000 BA, of which are c.7.000 organized in
50 BA networks
A typical network over the last 3 years
Sector Volume
Telecommunications 1 £5.6m:
Media & Communications/films 11 201
Agriculture & distribution technology & 5 investments
industrials by
Software for businesses 10 100-150
/other business services angels
Consumer software & leisure & tourism 8
Pharma & healthcare 2
TOTAL 37
16. Germany
• About 1000 investors organized in BA networks
holding 3,8 investments in average*
• Average investment size EUR 100.000*(high
variation), giving an overall financing volume of
about EUR 400million (compared to the new
“Hightech-Founders Fund” of the government
amounting to EUR 262million)
• *Estimates according to BAND (German Angel Networks Org.)
17. Trends in Angel Investments
• IT, internet services, biotechnology, medical
technology, ecology
• CR: much larger range, services in particular
18. GRISOFT - A Czech Success Story
AVG Anti-Virus/Firewall/Anti –spyware
Today: one of the fastest growing IT
companies in the world
40 million users worldwide
History:
Founded in 1991 by two Czech entrepreneurs
1992: start of AVG sales (CZK 2,3m annual sales)
1997/1998: expansion to Germany, GB, US
2001: company acquisition by group of BA under leadership of
Benson Oak Capital
2006: sale of majority stake (65%) of the company to Enterprise
Investors/Intel for USD 52m
2006: acquisition of ewido networks (anti spy-ware)
2006 annual sales: about CZK 1.000m
19. How to encourage BA investments?
• Promote a general entrepreneurial atmosphere
• Investment Readiness programmes –get
entrepreneurs ready for investments (business planning
advise, coaching, structured/unstructered training)
• Investors Readiness programmes – educate investors
• Syndication/BA networks
• Co-investment funds/seed capital funds
• Fiscal incentives (capital gain or loss exemption from tax,
equity guarantees)
20. EBAN statistics 2007
• Study based on 117 responses from a total of
234 networks(excl. Russia, Turkey, Israel) in
Europe (activities in 2006)
• Number of networks (mid-2006): 234
• Number of angels active in the networks: 10.331
• Number of projects received: 13.189
• Number of deals done: 843
• Average amount of the deal: EUR 177.311
23. Qualitative Aspects - main reasons for
project rejection (1)
(67 networks answered)
Two outstanding reasons :
• Problems related to the management team
(47 answers)
• Weak business model/no clear Unique Selling Point
(USP) (48 answers)
24. Qualitative Aspects - main reasons for
project rejection (2)
Other important factors included:
• Weak business plan (14 answers)
• Issues with the pre-money valuation (14 answers)
(70% over-valued)
• The project does not belong to the target group/sector of the investor (s)
(18 answers)
• The stage of development is too early or too advanced (12 answers)
• Lack of investment readiness (9 answers)
• Capital needs exceed funding capacity of the business angels (5 answers)
• Too short time to investment, too high risk (5 answers)
• The rest of the answers (from 1 to 4 answers) included the following perceived pitfalls: lack
of strategy, not in the regional focus, lack of availability of the investors, lack of financial
commitment from the founders, inability to scale the business, communication weaknesses.