EBAN Spotlights Business Angels During GEW

The importance of business angels in the early stage ecosystem cannot be overstated – they are often the pillars of entrepreneurial success, providing funding as well as expertise to help startups grow. Since its creation, EBAN – the European Business Angels Network – has been working to further the interests of business angels across Europe and beyond. With the Business Angels Week (BAW) initiative, we want to make sure that everyone is aware of the great work angel investors are doing and that more people get the chance to become involved with angel investing – whether as an entrepreneur getting funded or a potential investor. At its core, BAW is a cross-border awareness campaign endeavouring to promote business angel investing by providing maximum visibility to angel-related events.

Starting in 2013 with 141 events across Europe, Business Angels Week has kept growing and involving more partners – not the least of which are the MENA Business Angels Network (MBAN) and the African Business Angels Network        (ABAN), who facilitate the inclusion of events from the Middle East and Africa in BAW. Now in 2016, for the fourth year running, we are thrilled to be continuing the tradition and working to make Business Angels Week even bigger and better.

This year’s Business Angels Week is taking place from 14-20 November, and will feature a whopping 300 events, breaking our previous record and taking the initiative one step further. Additionally, for the second time in a row, BAW is taking place at the same time as Global Entrepreneurship Week, which is by no means a coincidence. Just as entrepreneurs and business angels make for a perfectly symbiotic relationship, so do EBAN and the Global Entrepreneurship Network when we collaborate to reach an even larger audience together. As we’re all part of the same thriving ecosystem, working together to harness the full potential of both business angels and entrepreneurs, as well as other players like incubators, accelerators, venture capital firms, governments, etc. is a must.

Along with our wonderful partners, what makes Business Angels Week such a success are the organizers of the events featured by BAW, who take it upon themselves to promote angel investing in their respective countries or regions and play an invaluable role in developing the ecosystem. EBAN is pleased to have so many of its members take part in the initiative, with some even holding their own national Business Angels Weeks. 

As the BAW initiative aims to raise awareness to the maximum, we celebrate events from mid-October to the end of December – the more events we can shine the light on that highlight business angel investing, the better. From networking events to conferences to pitching, training and beyond, we showcase them all in our quest to contribute to the development of entrepreneurship and business angel investing on a global scale.

The launch of Business Angels Week is upon us, but it’s still not too late to feature your events – contact Ana Barjasic from our team at ana@eban.org and here’s to many more successful Business Angels Weeks for years to come!