This year’s masterclass focused on „Angel investments in turbulent times“. To this end, long-established business angel icons shared their experiences with us, we got to know a new platform for deal flow management and fund investment tools, learned about the European Digital Innovation Hub and how to successfully identify exceptional founders.
The Baltic Business Angels masterclasses focus on deepening your own knowledge in the field of start-up investments and exchanging ideas with other investors in an atmosphere that explicitly allows for personal discussions. Once again this year, our year-end event took place over one and a half days in a great hotel in Schleswig-Holstein.
We started on Friday at the Panorama Hotel Aschberg with a kind of speed dating session to get to know the other members and their investment interests better. Many a private insight opened up through the leading questions and we got to talk to people with whom we may not have been in contact before.
After the coffee break, Christian Jessen from Investitionsbank Schleswig-Holstein (IB.SH) introduced us to the Innovation Fund SH, which the state of Schleswig-Holstein launched in summer 2023 as a new support program. Start-ups and innovative companies can receive silent or open investments of up to EUR 1 million from the fund. The SH Innovation Fund, which has a total volume of €50 million, is financed by EU funds as well as funds from the state, IB.SH and MBG.
Joachim Krabbenhöft, EDIH-SH project manager at Investitionsbank Schleswig-Holstein, then explained the services offered by this project. EDIH.SH supports companies and public administration organizations in creating new digital solutions at product and process level that take sustainability aspects into account in the innovation and implementation process.
Martin Stadler demonstrated how investors can structure and manage their deal flow digitally in an efficient way using the Leva software. AQUATY offers another exciting approach to managing investments. The founders Sebastian Otutuama and Robert Jeggle want to increase the accessibility of equity in the venture capital market. By developing digital, decentralized and automated solutions along the entire venture capital value chain, AQUATY aims to become the „end-to-end operating system“ for early-stage VCs in Europe.
Johann Nordhus Westarp is co-founder and managing director of Flash Ventures and explained how he identifies exceptional founders and ideas with the early-stage investor Lucid Capital. The assessment of start-ups in terms of their personal skills and motivation is an important criterion for many business angels in addition to purely looking at the figures.
Next, we went over to the USA where the discussion partner for a virtual fireside chat was waiting for our Management Board member Claas Nieraad: Carol Sands, angel icon and founder of The Angels‘ Forum and The Halo Fund, has been active as an investor, entrepreneur and in large companies for the past 36 years. She gave an exciting and inspiring insight into her way of managing investments and was an entertaining and impressive discussion partner.
We ended the program with a virtual live concert from Lviv in the Ukraine and met in the evening for a relaxed dinner with varied discussions.
On Saturday, we were able to get to know five selected start-ups and go into more in-depth discussions after their pitches.
Claus Ruhe Madsen has been Minister for Economic Affairs, Transport, Labour, Technology and Tourism since 29 June 2022. He was born in Copenhagen on 27 August 1972; he is married and has one daughter.
Claas begann seine Karriere in der Old Economy bei „AEG und Electrolux Group“, wo er seine Leidenschaft für aufstrebende Industrien entdeckte. Das ist es, was ihn bis heute antreibt. Nachdem er bei „American Heritage Management Corp.“ an der Wall Street war und in den 1990er Jahren an den ersten internetbasierten Börsengängen teilnahm, wurde seine Leidenschaft für Technik und disruptive Technologien immer stärker. Er ist Mitgründer von „New Commercial Room“, einem VC-Unternehmen mit Sitz in Hamburg, mit dem er ein Portfolio von High-Tech-Wachstumsunternehmen verwaltet, das von medizinischen Geräten über Medien bis hin zu SaaS, IT und Cybersecurity reicht. Als Angel Investor investierte er sowohl privat in Unternehmen als auch mit dem „btov Investor-Network“. Er betreut aktiv zahlreiche deutsche StartUps, Accelerator-Programme und ist Scout im Norden für den „High-Tech Gründerfonds“ (HTGF). Dadurch hat er Zugang zu erstklassigem internationalen Deal Flow und Investoren. Darüber hinaus hat Claas mehrere Aufsichtsratspositionen inne und ist Live-Musiker mit der „Soul Lounge Connection“.
As a serial entrepreneur, investor and business angel, Julian has been involved in the German start-up and venture capital scene since 2003. He focuses on helping selected early-stage start-ups and their founders to turn their ambitions into reality. Investments are typically made in early-stage B2B technology companies with an initial track record. Julian’s current focus is on Industrial IoT, data analytics, B2B platform tools, e-health and 3D. He is particularly keen on spin-offs originating from research foundations and organisations or technical universities, but is also open to other opportunities. The best way to find out more about Julian is to visit his Website and here in the Interview.
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