EstBAN is a member-led organization committed to finding, funding, and mentoring ambitious young companies from pitch through to a successful exit.

Estonian Business Angels Network (EstBAN)

EstBAN

EstBAN is an umbrella organization for business angels and angel groups seeking investment opportunities in Estonia and its neighbouring regions.

We established the network in 2012 with an aim to grow the quantity and quality of local seed stage investments. We welcome all positive spirited persons with a passion for investing their time and funds into startups. We also partner with local and international BANs, venture capitalists and advisory services providers.

👋 Hey, angel investors! Do you have a portfolio startup, looking to secure further investment funding? Then invite your startups to the European Angel Investment Summit in Brussels, Belgium on October 15 - 16 and have them pitch to top international angels directly on stage! Applications are open until September 15th so get them prepared and apply today!

Applications can be made here: https://lnkd.in/eeRZpxXe

 If the startups in your portfolio gets chosen they will have access to:

🎫2 Complimentary EAIS Tickets
📣A pitching slot during the event
💻Profile listed on the EAIS website with promotional campaigns 
✏️All #EAIS24 workshops and sessions
🤝Networking opportunities facilitated by the Brella app
💲Additional tickets and discounts for their team
💡Possibility to have an exhibition stand 

Have you already bought your tickets to the European Angel Investment Summit? If not then you can still get your discounted tickets as an EBAN - European Business Angel Network member! Email info@eban.org to get your code to buy them today: https://lnkd.in/dfRpwmv

Sign up for a fireside chat already this Wednesday, August 7th (online) where Estonian Business Angels Network (EstBAN) Managing Director Karin Künnapas and Naimul Abd, the Serial Nordic Ecosystem Builder from Connect Sverige Region Öst chat about Estonian startup scene and spread some advice for upcoming investors and founders in the Nordic region. Check it out! 👇

If you have an energy or climate focused startup or have invested into one - this information comes handy! Read more on our partner Beamline Accelerator page 🌱👇

Great news about the Estonian food-tech startup Raw Edge! 🎙️ While Estonian Business Angels Network (EstBAN) team was super busy organizing the EBAN Annual Congress Tallinn 2024 in the month of May, our friends from the #4NGELS project went on a study trip to Slovenia! 🇸🇮

Business angel community from Slovenia, Finland, Poland and Estonia visited #Ljubliana and Slovenian startup scene, and attended the Podim Conference – where the 4NGELS Pitching Competition was held and Raw Edge – the cool 🇪🇪 food-tech company won and will get a syndicated investment from internatioinal angel investors that had signed up for the 4NGELS project! 🏆

Take a look at the photos from the Slovenian study trip and let’s celebrate Raw Edge’s international attention! More information about the syndicate and investment soon! Congratulations Kristel Vene, PhD and Mariliis Mia Topp 👏👏👏

3 best startups that pitched at PODIM Conference during the 4NGELS study visit to Slovenia were:

SOLIDU from Lithuania 🇱🇹
MediMatcher from Finland 🇫🇮
Raw Edge from Estonia  🇪🇪 

As many of you know, EstBAN is part of several international business angel networks’ common projects that all aim to encourage cross boarder investments and help to ease international networking and connections. 4NGELS is made up of Estonian Business Angels Network (EstBAN), Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN), Business Angels of Slovenia, COBIN Angels and led by Civitta.

See the aftermovie of EBAN Congress Tallinn 2024! 🤩 

- 3 days
- 70 speakers
- 2 stages
- 50 different nationalities
- 650 attendees
- several side events & workshops
- two awesome dinner parties
- 53 startups
- Awards & Gala Ceremony 

🎥 by Kert Ülenõmm from Kert Media

Anu Oks Kärt Klein Teele Tilts Margret Kanniste Annelis Rum Asso Toming Claes Mikko Nilsen Linda Võeras Janne Jormalainen Lauri Antalainen Martin Villig 🇪🇪 President Kaljulaid Foundation Risto Siilasmaa Mikko Silventola Kart Siilats Rita Sakus Michael Falck Rainer Saks EBAN - European Business Angel Network Jacopo Losso Ismar Lacevic Elena S. Nathan Clos UN Women Europe and Central Asia Visit Estonia Invest in Estonia Swedbank Estonia Delfi Meedia Dealum Civitta City of Tallinn Tehnopol Latitude59 Bionanopolys Bolt Tenity OCCO Klaar.me e-Residency

EstBAN has a tradition of hosting season-end events twice a year, in June and December. 🎊

On Thursday, June 13th, we gathered at the SUHE bar for networking. EstBAN board member Jan Lätt and our partner KPMG's Attorney-at-Law Sandra Toots educated a few novice angel investors; then all the EstBAN crowd listened to a keynote by 🌍 Launch Africa Ventures' Zachariah George and EstBAN president Lauri Antalainen summed up the first half of 2024. Hearing about Africa’s rising and fast-emerging startup scene was fascinating and brought the continent closer to our Nordic mindset. 🙌 And of course, our angel-investor-residentDJ Priit Uustulnd curated the good sounds of the space. 🎶

Lauri shared, what's new in EstBAN:

- We have a new CEO, Karin Künnapas! 👋
- 12 new members have joined the network this year.
- We’ve held 25 events for our investors.
- 30 startups have pitched to EstBAN investors.
- EstBAN and its investors have initiated at least five syndicate investments (into Esgrid, FleetFox, AskToSell, Beholder, and GaltTec). We’ve had great collaborations with sTARTUp Day and Latitude59 regarding syndicates and side events.
- In May hosted huge EBAN - European Business Angel Network Congress in Tallinn, with 650 guests, 60% of whom were international guests from 49 countries.
- EstBAN is the Best Performing Member of EBAN, and Heidi Kakko was awarded Female Investor of the Year! 🏆🏆
- There will be a few summer events: a tennis tournament 🎾, the Tartu Investor Club event, and a season opening pitch-event in August. Stay tuned for our newsletters! 
- Autumn will bring many study trips abroad: to Sweden, Lithuania, Poland, and Finland!

See you all next time! ☀️ Photos by Jarek Jõepera

Thank you to all our members, fans and partners! Workland Offices Sparkup Tartu Science Park KPMG Net Group Ltd Tehnopol Harju Elekter Estonia Elisa Eesti AS Invest in Estonia Visit Estonia Civitta Beamline Accelerator Verve Ventures Swedbank Estonia. 🤝

EstBAN held a New Member Onboarding Session yesterday for new angel investors and those who wanted to refresh their knowledge and gain confidence when doing high risk investments. 📚

EstBAN board member and lead investor Jan Lätt talked about his journey as an investor and gave great insight of how he is thinking when deciding when and where to invest, how to exit and what to pay attention to. 

Some ideas from Jan:
🪽 there is ups and downs and you must be ready to loose; 
🪽 single investments don't work - you need a portfolio;
🪽 syndicates offer more value than investing alone;
🪽 foo fast vs too slow - don't rush, you will make mistakes and loose money;
🪽 total value of angel investments - 3-5% from total assets/portfolio;
🪽 it's wise to invest ca 3 startups per year and make at least 15-20 investments within the timeline of 4-5 years;
🪽 think what's your focus? possibilities: Saas, Fintech, Green Energy...
🪽 1-3 out of 10 startup investments survive and might bring back something.

👩⚖️ And we also had Sandra Toots, Attorney-at-Law from KPMG Law spoke about Legal ABCs for Angel Investors. We learned that investing into a startup requires more than just a gut feeling or a tip from a friend. There’s several legal matters you need to make yourself acquainted with.

Key picks from Sandra’s presentation:
🟠 Which startup to invest into?
🟠 Which format: direct, syndicate or crowdfunding platforms?
🟠 As a private person (füüsiline isik) or holding company (OÜ)?
🟠 Which type of investments to make? - equity, convertible loan, simple agreement for future equity?

When you have decided which format you invest, you also need to know the legal documents that are needed for each type of investment, be it direct, syndicate or platform.

We hope evereyone who was there gained something interesting and had an overall good time! Educated investors are Estonian Business Angels Network (EstBAN)’s mission! 🧑🎓

The New Member Onboarding session was followed by a fun networking and Season End event! More about this coming soon!

👋  Super warm welcome to EstBAN's new interim Managing Director Karin Künnapas! As our long time powerhouse leader Anu Oks has gone to a maternity leave, we welcome Karin and will surely make big things altogether in the angel investment community!

🙋♀️ Fun fact is that Karin has actually worked at EstBAN from 2013-2017 so she knows what's it all about. Here's a few words from her and all your good wishes, feedback and ideas are welcome here and for Karin's new EstBAN e-mail address! 

✨ "I'm excited to join EstBAN again and take over the role of Managing Director from Anu. I've been involved in the startup scene for more than 10 years, and besides working at EstBAN some while ago, I've been responsible for the program of European Innovation Academy in Portugal, Italy, Qatar, Hong Kong and China. In 2021 I joined kood/Jõhvi as Co-Director to build up the new and innovative coding school in Ida-Virumaa.

I look forward to getting to know and working with all the members with the goal to increase the activity of angel investing and also the amount of lead investors in EstBAN. And as a personal passion project, I would love to increase the number of actively investing female angels in the network."✨

Let's go!

EBAN Congress was a success and we're enormously happy that great content is kicking in afterwards too - the leading European media brand backed bay the Financial Times, Sifted tells the stories that matter in Europe's startup scene.

We're super happy that the Unicorn Panel at the congress was moderated by Sifted's senior editor Zosia Wanat who had a good chat with successful entrepreneurs Martin Villig 🇪🇪 from Bolt, Michael Falck from RELEX Solutions🇫🇮 and Davis Siksnans from Latvia's Printful 🇱🇻- our southern neighbour's first unicorn startup! 

🙌 If you want to read Sifted's coverage on the congress, please click this link: https://lnkd.in/eCGib_DW

We ourselves picked up a few great quotes too among many from Martin Villig:

🦄 Building a unicorn should never be a goal in itself. Focus on solving a problem and if you do things right, the valuation will come with it.

💡 The challenge in Europe is that founders often sell too early, so the bigger value and growth goes to investors from other regions. Part of Bolt’s mission is to prove you can build one of the biggest companies in Europe from here and inspire others. 

💸 For bigger rounds with institutional investors, Bolt has built relations over the years. Introduce your plans and show you deliver on what you promise.

Should you want to read more in-depth article on what Sifted'd editor picked up, please follow this link: https://lnkd.in/eCGib_DW

Photos: Edmond Mäll

Our friends from EBAN - European Business Angel Network have put it all into a nice summary too! 🙌

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