What are Business Angel Networks?
Business Angel Network (BAN) is a network of independent private investors, who are willing to invest their money in attractive projects - projects with good growth potential that may bring them higher than average return on invested capital.
Why are BANs so important?
Because they are an extremely good source of capital, contacts and knowledge for the potential Entrepreneur. Angel Investor brings money into the new business, but also his/her contacts and knowledge of that industry. For the new Entrepreneur Business Angel is an extremely good business partner, willing to share his/her own experience and provide support on different business levels. Angel sometimes acts as a mentor and sometimes as a coach. This kind of approach makes this type of investment interesting and important for the new businessman/businesswoman. It is definitely worth considering.
Is the Business Angel involved in management of the company he/she invests in?
YES and NO. It varies from project to project. He/she usually acts as a mentor or coach. He/she supports Entrepreneur via his/her own contacts, experience etc, but involvement in the operational management is not applicable.
Which criteria are the most important for Business Angels when valuing an Entrepreneur and his/her project?
Of course good business concept (innovative) with strong growth potential and good IRR is one indicator for the investor. But what really matters for the Angel Investor in valuing the business is the team - who will be an engine of the business. I mean what kind of experience and knowledge this Entrepreneur has in the business he/she would like to run. To be honest it is a crucial and the most important point, because at the end of the day Business Angel invests in people. Typical investments are start-ups or investments in early stage companies, which require an investment of PLN 200.000 to 5 mil (EUR 52.000 to 1.3 mil). Like in all start-up projects, the risk is very high and in this case people are the most important indicator of potential success. Business Angel needs to be sure that the team he/she invests in is the most capable and able to create success on the market.
What is the position of Business Angels on the private equity market?
When compared to other CEE countries, what are Poland’s advantages?
Market size, localization and growing economy with good growth perspective. More and more global players are coming to the Polish market and building local presence - i.e. international Private Equity Funds like Bridge Point or Carlyle. Definitely they see a good investment opportunities here, which is a very good signal for the whole economy.
Worth mentioning is also NewConnect organized and operated by Warsaw Stock Exchange. This is a new market financing the growth of new and relatively young companies with good growth potential. It can be also one of the advantages that Poland can offer to the investors. Let’s hope that the NewConnect, as an alternative trading system, will bring a similar success as The Alternative Investment Market (a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange).
What is Lewiatan Business Angels’ mission?
To help new Entrepreneurs get financing and start new business.
Business Angels and Entrepreneurs - what services do you provide to them?
At the first stage we are the first contact with the Entrepreneurs – we collect all the business plans, scan them and choose the most promising ones. Than we contact Business Angels and if they approve the idea we organize a meeting between the Angel and the Entrepreneur.
How can Business Angel and Entrepreneur become a member of you network? How many members do you already have?
If a private investor wants to be a member of Lewiatan Business Angels, he or she needs to sign our investor declaration document, accept LBA statute and pass our internal evaluation. The idea of the internal evaluation is very simple - we want to get to know each other. We should understand what kinds of projects are interesting for that Angel Investor, what kind of experience this person has and in which industries etc. We want to have a good match between us and the potential Angel. That is why we use this so called internal evaluation.
From the Entrepreneur’s point of view it looks very easy. Entrepreneur should sign one agreement between LBA and himself/herself and accept the LBA status. That is all.
All the documents can be found on our website www.lba.pl and to be more precise here.
