Women's Business Angel Development Programme
South East Europe Women's Business Angel Network (SEEWBAN)
Funding is a critical resource for businesses starting up and/or seeking to grow and research continues to show that gaining funding is a key challenge for women-owned businesses.
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Business Angel investment is when individuals invest their personal capital in an early stage company in return for a share of equity in that company. It is an essential source of funding and support for a large number of early stage and start-up businesses.
Although it is estimated that half of the EU’s wealth is in female hands, very few women are active in business angel investment. A survey of the European Business Angels Network (EBAN) members determined that less than 5% of business angel investors were women. Compared to other nations such as the US, where the percentage of women business angels is 15%, the situation in Europe is particularly poor with implications for business start-up and economic growth. Yet Business Angel investment is a growth area in terms of investment opportunities and a useful diversification strategy for any investment portfolio.
The SEEWBAN project supports women-owned businesses to gain greater access to finance through Business Angel investment. Seven nations including Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Hungry, Bulgaria, Slovenia and the UK (Scotland) have united to deliver a programme of support. Each country is represented by a Women’s Business association and/or a business organisation including many international Chambers of Commerce and industry bodies.
Delivery of this European project is being led by Women’s Enterprise Scotland (WES) who have extensive expertise in Access to Finance for women-owned businesses, including Business Angel investment. In Scotland and the UK, WES is working with various existing Business Angel syndicates on the SEEWBAN project.
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The SEEWBAN programme has:
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created training for women-owned businesses on taking on investment
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created a development programme for women and men interested to learn more about investing in women-owned businesses
To be kept informed of funding opportunities from this project, please register here:
If you're interested in learning more about becoming an angel investor in this project, please register here:
In developing this programme, the European project consortium has researched international best practice, including best practice developed here in Scotland and the UK to develop training programmes. Free online programmes are available for women interested in becoming business angel investors and for women-owned businesses considering taking on investment for growth. Face -to-face preparatory workshops for both prospective investors and women-owned businesses are also available. Following our first round of training delivery, our Meet the Investors event saw 20 women-owned businesses pitch a wide variety of innovative business opportunities to investors, followed by an engaging and interactive networking session.
Business organisations and individuals interested in collaborating to develop this work further are warmly encouraged to contact us. Women-owned businesses wanting to be kept informed on funding opportunities from this project work, please register for the Pitching for Investment Training below. . Men and women interested in gaining the skills required to become an angel investor, please register for the Business Angel Development event below to be kept up to date on training opportunities.
We look forward to meeting you and working together to extend the reach of the vibrant business angel community here in Scotland and the UK.
Further development events will be available in 2019 for both women-owned businesses and prospective business angels.
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