Saluting theYear’s Successes
18 February 2019, Istanbul
With its Excellence Awards, the World Business Angels Investment Forum looks beyond borders. It seeks to promote and nurture start-ups, scale-ups, high-growth businesses, SMEs, angel investors, and a dynamic business community throughout the world. From business angels to policymakers to academics, the Awards salute those who stand out in imagining, discussing, and shaping the future of an entrepreneurial World.
Given the diverse challenges the world is facing in the twenty-first century, it is important to recognize that entrepreneurship and angel investment can have a major impact on our future, offering new ways to increase economic opportunities and to foster social justice.
The World Business Angels Investment Forum aims to contribute to that impact by driving positive changes that will facilitate entrepreneurship. Fostering entrepreneurship whose effects can be felt in both economic and social arenas is a hallmark of the World Business Angels Investment Forum.
Categories
The annual World Business Angels Investment Forum Excellence Awards celebrate high growth and success in the angel and early stage investment market – recognising the fastest growing brands and acknowledging the founders, angels, crowdfund and early stage venture capital investors behind them.
Open to both companies and investors, these Awards seek to recognise the year’s most disruptive new market entrants and provide a definitive list of the most exciting ‘ones to watch’ in the angel and early stage investment space.
The World Business Angels Investment Forum Excellence Awards recognize notable activities in the following fields in 2018 throughout world saluting outstanding contributors to entrepreneurship and the angel investment ecosystems globally.
• The Best Angel Investor
• The Best Business Angel Network
• The Best Exit
• The Best Corporate Venture
• The Best Crowdfunding Platform
• The Best Academician on Entrepreneurship
• The Best Government Supporting Entrepreneurship
• The Best Governmental Agency Supporting Entrepreneurship
• The Best Stock Exchange Backing Startups
• The Best Venture Capitalist
• The Best Fund for Startups
• The Best Initiative on Supporting Innovation, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
World’s Top Awards & VIP Gala Dinner
Winners are announced in VIP Gala Awards Dinner event which brings together over 200 leading players from across the early stage investment industry to join in celebrating the Awards winners highlighting the year’s most innovative angel-backed businesses and investors from across the world.The VIP Gala Dinner brings together over 200 thought-leaders in angel and early stage investment each year for an exclusive black-tie celebration. With excellent opportunities for corporate hospitality, we invite you to join in and celebrate the year’s most prominent successes in the risk capital market.
Beginning with a welcome reception, guests enjoy a VIP gala dinner followed by an international presenter, announcing the winners of the World Business Angels Investment Forum Excellence Awards every year in the first night of its annual Congress in Istanbul.
Applications/Nominations for 2019 Awards
World Excellence Awards 2019 will be presented to winners and honerees on 18th of February 2019 in Istanbul.Applications are made as a an direct applicant or as a nominator as well. We invite you to apply for or nominate a colleague for the World Excellence Awards 2019 at the World Excellence Awards
We invite you to join our global efforts to ease access to smart finance.
We invite you to join us in our global efforts to ease access to smart finance, which will help create more jobs and more social justice worldwide. Your efforts to convert the world economy into a smart economy in cooperation with the World Business Angels Investment Forum are very important.
By working together across borders, with a common vision, and with these smart dynamics in mind, we are well placed to create positive change in the global economy.
Cross-border collaboration and syndication among angels and angel federations has come a long way since the initiation of the European Business Angel Network in 1999. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation launched the Angel Capital Association in 2005 and the Portuguese Federation of Angels initiated the World Business Angel Association in 2009. We thank those leaders and all those associated with these efforts for their pioneering work. They have laid the groundwork for the launch of the next generation global network, open to all serious non-institutional funders of entrepreneurial ventures: the Global Business Angels Network (GBAN). GBAN is an initiative of the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), the community of programs and policy initiatives now in 150 countries born out of Global Entrepreneurship Week initiated and funded by the Kauffman Foundation.
The Global Business Angels Network (GBAN) is a global community of business angel networks and organizations coordinated by the Global Entrepreneurship Network, Inc. (GEN). GBAN brings greater public awareness and engagement to the role that business angels play in helping new firms start and scale.
GBAN interfaces with entrepreneurs, policymakers, other early-stage finance actors and leading entrepreneurial support programs to strengthen the global entrepreneurial ecosystem. Whether helping local entrepreneurial ecosystems recruit more investors, expanding geographic investment arenas beyond local markets or amplifying the angel “voice” to regulatory issue discussions, GBAN seeks to provide an inclusive, supportive community of early-stage investors around the world.
Global Entrepreneurship Network is a year-round platform of programs and initiatives created by the communities that celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) each November. Aimed at creating one global entrepreneurial ecosystem, GEN helps people in 150 countries unleash their ideas and turn them into promising new ventures—creating jobs, unearthing innovations for society and strengthening economic stability around the world.
EBAN is an international, not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to represent the pan-European early stage investor community, gathering member organisations and individuals from Europe and beyond. Originally targeted only to business angels, today EBAN is a cross sector representative of equity early stage investors.
EBAN represents a sector estimated to invest 5.1billion Euros a year and comprising 260.000 angel investors. According to its annual collection of data (2012) and exclusively though business angel networks, 2900 company were funded and 17800 jobs were created.
EBAN was established in 1999 by a group of pioneer angel networks in Europe with the collaboration of the European Commission and EURADA (the European Association of Development Agencies).In 1999, only 50 business angel networks were identified across Europe to support high growth start-ups, with more than half operating in the UK. Today, the number of business angel networks has risen to 460.
Activities:
Setting professional standards, training, and certification for the early stage investment asset class; building the capacity of early stage investment actors to facilitate co-investment as well as increasing transparency in the market by changing the culture on reporting standards.
Benchmarking, research and networking with peers .
Lobbying , trusted and continued dialogue with European policy makers to improve the working environment of early stage investors.
Raising awareness, advocacy and capacity building.
Cross-border syndication and co-investment support.
Structure:
Types of members accepted by EBAN (31/12/2013)
Business Angels
Business angels networks
Federations of business angels networks
Early stage venture capital funds
Business accelerators
Electronic funding platforms
Associate/ other early stage market players
Governance:
EBAN is led by a Board of Directors elected for 2-year mandates. The Board selects a President and an Executive Committee which becomes involved in the day-to-day operations with the Secretariat.
EBAN Presidents:
2014-2016 Candace Johnson, Sophia Business Angels, France
2012-2014 Paulo Andrez, FNABA, Portugal
2010-2012 Brigitte Baumann, Go Beyond, Switzerland
2006-2010 Anthony Clarke, London Business Angels, United Kingdom
2003-2006: Peter Jungen, BAND, Germany
Before 2003: co-presidency system
The African Trade Association for Early Stage Investment Market Players and Business Angels (ABAN) was founded to facilitate the economic growth of African countries with the involvement of investor networks for early stage entrepreneurship on the continent, some of the existing networks including the Lagos Angels Network (LAN), Cameroon Angel Network; (CAN), Cairo Angels, Ghana Angel Network (GAIN), Venture Capital for Africa (VC4Africa) Silicon Cape, and with support from the European Business Angels Network (EBAN).
MENA Business Angel Network (MBAN) initiative started in UAE in June 2014. This initiative is responding to the growing interest in start-ups by Business Angels and early stage investors in the MENA region and their desire to find the best modality to manage their investments and guarantee the best return. Angel and early-stage Investors are well established in Europe and globally, with billions of Euros invested annually through the various Angel Network Groups. The MENA region needs to pay attention to setting up the right structure and rules for Angel and early-stage Investing, in order to have a vibrant, healthy and promising entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Turkey, ranked 16th in a rapidly changing world economy is one of the few countries with the entrepreneurial base to increase its standing in the 21st century. Turkey which has been one of the least affected economies in the global economic crisis is in the fortunate position of being able to use the power of its entrepreneurs to increase its competitive advantage as the crises gives way to regional and worldwide economic growth. The most important event for entrepreneurship in the 21st century was the hosting of the entrepreneurship summit by US President Barack Obama in Washington DC. The next summit will be hosted in Turkey at Prime Ministerial level confirming the dynamism of entrepreneurship in the Turkish economy.
Turkish entrepreneurs met with a new model of entrepreneurship called ‘The Franchising System’ in 1991.We moved from a mindset of ‘we don’t have any branches’ to the mindset of ‘we have branches all over the world’. This transition was built on franchising contracts and agreements between independent entrepreneurs.
The Business Angels Association – Turkey (TBAA) is an not-for-profit organization whose mission is to stimulate the exchange of knowledge and best practices in the field of global angel capital financing for high growth and innovative startups.
Based in Istanbul, the TBAA was formed by business angels to create an international community of business angel networks and leaders for the promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship through the financing of high growth start-up companies with the support of business angels worldwide.
Membership:
TBAA is an NGO whose direct members are business angels, which in turn represent business angel groups and networks in their respective angel groups.
Mission:
The primary mission of the TBAA is to raise awareness of the importance and practice of business angel investment, stimulate the exchange of best practices in angel investing, and enhance the development of cross-border angel investing. It does this by promoting the professionalization of the angel market through the fostering of angel groups and associations; coordinating research produced on the angel market worldwide organizing in-person meetings and conferences for international angel investors; and developing online resources for information about, and access to, local, regional and cross-border angel investing resources.
Activities:
Setting professional standards, training, and certification for the early stage investment asset class; building the capacity of early stage investment actors to facilitate co-investment as well as increasing transparency in the market by changing the culture on reporting standards.
Benchmarking, research and networking with peers .
Lobbying , trusted and continued dialogue with European policy makers to improve the working environment of early stage investors.
Raising awareness, advocacy and capacity building.
Cross-border syndication and co-investment support.
Structure:
Types of members accepted by TBAA (31/12/2013)
Business Angels
Business angels networks
Federations of business angels networks
Early stage venture capital funds
Business accelerators
Electronic funding platforms
Associate/ other early stage market players
Governance:
TBAA is led by a Board of Directors elected for 3-year mandates. The Board selects a President and an Executive Committee which becomes involved in the day-to-day operations with the Secretariat.
Mission:
To enable Turkish entrepreneurs to become familiar with a culture of partnerhip Now it is time for Turkish entrepreneurs to embrace a completely new model of entrepreneurship introduced by the TBAA –Business Angels Association of Turkey. A ‘partnership culture’ whereby businessmen of acumen are invited to form partnerships with rising entrepreneurs.
TBAA is easing the way for entrepreneurs planning start-ups to access both domestic and international financial sources.As entrepreneurial businessmen of experience and acumen we have come together under the umbrella of TBAA to contribute to Turkey’s economic ecosystem by facilitating start-up business’ access to national and international capital.
Goals:
The values we mentioned are listed below. The public and entrepreneurs will be informed in the future about the output of the program.
1. To provide development in the culture of partnership in the business world in Turkey
2. To support entrepreneurs who want to establish their own businesses and help them easily reach essential financial sources
3. To create an eco system which supports entrepreneurs enabling them to set up their own businesses, providing all necessary financial support for institutions and companies
4. To provide all means of education related to entrepreneurship and support any kind of educational programs for entrepreneurship
5. To make the business angel investment system renowned in Turkey, and to provide essential legal infrastructure
6. To make business angel investment recognized as a professional career option
7. To develop an entrepreneurship ability test competing with universities and private school or colleges
8. To research Turkey’s entrepreneurship profile and find out yearly trends and prepare reports
9. To organize essential public studies on the legal infrastructure needed by the business angels
10. To cooperate with and inform various associations such as The Union of Turkish Chambers Of Commerce, Higher Education Council , Department of Employment, Small Business Development Agency(SMBs), Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, Capital Markets Board, The Union of Banks, Technoparks, Association of Turkish Accession Ministry of Industry and Trade Competition Board, Universities’ Entrepreneurship Clubs, Incubators, Charities Chamber of Commerce and Industry
11. To be a bridge for Entrepreneurs – Angel Investors- Angel Investment Groups- venture Capitalists – match makers
12. To prepare an environment which brings together entrepreneurs and business angels
13. To train instructors who will educate entrepreneurs and angel investors.
14. To set up a platform on which experienced angel investors can transfer know-how
15. To follow international developments and to perform international membership procedures
16. To provide an increase in the number of inventions in Turkey in cooperation with scientists
17. To promote the concepts of ‘business angel’ and ‘venture capitalist’ and evolve a new common language in cooperation with the Turkish Language Institution
18. To supply the transfer of know-how from abroad by inviting successful angel investors
19. To continue studying intellectual and industrial patent right
20. To evolve a code of ethics
21. To establish financial markets at both national and regional levels for business angels thereby creating a positive environment in which entrepreneurs will have easy access to capital
22. To organize a platform on which angel business angels can share their experiences among themselves
23. To enable – by means of training, seminars, workshops, mentoring and coaching -entrepreneurs to achieve a level of proficiency which will allow them to reach capital sources easily
Strategy Team:
This is made up of associate members who provide strategic support for investors and entrepreneurs and associate members. Strategy Team Members have no rights to vote in the association but are able to take part in all activities as full members do.
The general profile of strategic members is as follows :
Academics
Business Law Consultants
Bankers and Representatives of Financial Institutions
Management Consultants
Matchmakers