News

Bet on the jockey, not the horse! That is sage advice from investors in the start-up world because “things” change and the jockey needs to course correct during the long race to success. In fact, the most successful investors at TechCoastAngels spend an inordinate amount of time looking at the CEO and his/her team to determine if the investment makes sense. Even if the business plan is strong, if the jockey and the team is weak, angel investors (and presumably VCs) will not invest.

HBAN (Halo Business Angel Network), the all-island organisation responsible for the promotion of business angel investment, and an initiative of Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland and Invest Northern Ireland, has announced that it plans to recruit 50 new female business angel investors over the next three years.

Angel investment is growing in popularity as a source of early-stage funding for start-ups. Better Business looks at the relationship between company and investor and uncovers how best to strike a deal.

Today in the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, the Government of Ireland, through Enterprise Ireland, and the European Investment Fund (EIF) announced the signing of an agreement to double the size of the existing European Angels Fund Ireland (EAF Ireland) to €40m.

Click on the picture below to read the article at Fora.ie

For many angel investors, enabling change to make a positive impact for humankind is a driving force behind investment decisions.  Even with the desire to drive this constructive change, it can be challenging for an investor to know where to begin.  Deep technology is that space where meaningful change can be made while also positioning for potentially greater returns because of important economic trendsin several technology fields, with the understanding that there are significant risks associated with investing in this space.

Women are underrepresented in Angel investing around the world. It is estimated that in the UK women hold 45% of wealth but only 14% of UK Business angels are women1. In Ireland, this issue is more pronounced where only 6% of active angels within HBAN are women.

HBAN (Halo Business Angel Network), the all-island organisation responsible for the promotion of business angel investment, and a joint initiative of Enterprise Ireland and InterTrade Ireland, today announces that its MedTech Syndicate has led a €1.1 million Series A funding round in medical device start-up, Ostoform. HBAN Angels contributed €280,000, with venture capital investor, SOSV, Enterprise Ireland, and other angel investors making up the rest of the funding round.

As your angel career develops, and you start to build a larger portfolio of companies, you are increasingly asked to make follow-on investments. Not only do companies need investment to get off the ground, the faster they grow, the more cash they need. Whether to follow-on, and how to follow-on, are questions which have long given rise to angel debate. We’ll tackle that topic in depth here, but I’ll start out by confessing to bias right up front: Christopher and I are both believers that follow on investments are essential to achieving good returns. We firmly defend and negotiate for pro-rata rights to participate in future financings. Our overall perspective is that with your earlier checks you are basically buying options on a front row seat which comes with the right to add more “smart money” into the winners as they begin to show promise.

The Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Early & Growth Stage Funds have invested €1.7M in Sytorus Ltd, this is in addition to simultaneous investment from Enterprise Ireland and private investors.  Established by Dr. John Ghent (CEO), Mike Morrissey (COO) and Hugh Jones (CPO) in 2013, Sytorus’s flagship software ‘PrivacyEngine’ is a dynamic GDPR and Data Protection SAAS product. It provides end-to-end data protection solutions to corporate clients.  The Company, with over 50 staff, is scaling rapidly and today has over 300 hundred fee paying corporate clients worldwide. Sytorus has opened offices in Stockholm and London, and this latest investment will facilitate a new office to open in Frankfurt.