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My name is Rudy Aernoudt.
I'm professor at the University
of Ghent in Belgium.
The topic of today
is Business Angels.
0:11
When we speak about
Business Angels,
who are we speaking about?
Well, Business Angels have
some characteristics.
First of all, they have
an enterprise background.
So, it's people who are involved
or have been involved
in business.
The first characteristic
is enterprise background.
The second one, they have money.
That money mostly comes
from the fact that they have
been sold their company.
They have money,
enterprise background,
and the third category,
they have time.
Business Angel, it's
an entrepreneur,
he or she doesn't like to
be called ex-entrepreneur.
It's an entrepreneur,
has money and has time.
With those three elements,
we are having people that can
invest mainly in
startup companies.
Interesting to say, they're
always interested
in minority stakes.
They don't want majority
because they have
been through that.
Now, they want to
help starters, assist
them, but they don't want
to be major shareholders.
Looking to the
assets, on average,
they are spending 25% of
their assets which are
using for the investments
and they're looking
for return which
is in minimum 20%.
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What are they looking for?
They're not looking
for scaleups,
they're looking for startups,
investing relatively
small amounts of money.
The average is
60,000 per investor,
which is the investment
varying from 25,000-250,000.
They want to share their
managerial skills
and their networks.
We can consider that
Business Angel's money
in contradiction to
banking credits,
it is smart money.
Smart money meaning they put
money, but at the same time
they want to have
something to say in
the company because
the money is spent and
they want to help the starter
in running and
managing his company.
In general, there is
no sector reference,
but mostly Business
Angels try to invest
close to home because they want
to be involved in the company,
they want to spend some time
in the company. So, it's
a relatively regionally
based investment.
They are seeking profits,
but not on the same level
as Venture Capital Funds,
but at the same time,
they always want fun,
they want to challenge.
It's not only about a
return driven investment,
they want to be involved and
they want to have some fun as
well and really want to
be part of the business.
