- May 27, 2014 – DUBLIN, Ireland –David Drake shared his expertise on Crowdfunding and its remarkable success in the European market.
The European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds and other Early Stage Market Players (EBAN) brought together the acclaimed entrepreneurs in Europe and from other parts of the globe to share and learn about investor models that bring about wealth creation. Business angels, stakeholders, social businessmen, policymakers and academicians rendezvous once again for the yearly EBAN conference last May 19-20, 2014. This year, the 14th Annual EBAN conference chose the Dublin Castle in Ireland as its venue.
This year’s conference kicked off with a pre-congress dinner on Sunday, 18 May 2014 at 7:30 pm. “The Power of the Collective: Business Angels, Seed Funds, Accelerators & Incubation Space” is the theme for this year’s congress.
As always, the congress presented a power-packed group of leading entrepreneurs and thought leaders from Europe and around the world to spearhead discussions on what the shifting climate in economy calls for and the latest trends in business in this side of the world.
David Drake, chairman and founder of The Soho Loft and LDJ Capital, shared his expertise in crowdfunding and its remarkable success in the European market and elsewhere. “Crowdfunding is happening quickly around the world,” says Drake. “Europe represented 45 percent of Crowdfunding transactions in the world in 2011. Europe will yield to financial innovation like Crowdfunding soon,” Drake predicts.
Along with Drake, President of EBAN Paulo Andrez also spoke in the conference. Andrez, an angel investor from Portugal, shared his valuable insights on angel investments and social entrepreneurships, among other things. Modweena Rees-Mogg, founder of Angel News of the United Kingdom, served as moderator for the entire congress. Brendan Butler, Board Member of InterTrade Ireland and Chair of its Equity Network, opened the ceremonies. Michael Culligan, National Director of HBAN joined Butler in the opening ceremonies. Richard Bruton, Minister from Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation (DJEI) also graced the event.
The presence of these high-ranking officials showed the strong support of the government for this highly acclaimed business congress. David Rose, founder of the Gust, and known as New York’s Archangel spoke on ‘Syndication & Co-Investment by Angels and Seed Venture Capital’. Mark Horgan, chairman of the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA) and Gerard Ryan, foreign direct investor partner of Eversheds Ireland (IE) shared their expertise on the subject as well.
This year’s conference took an interesting turn as it acknowledges important contributions of female entrepreneurs. American Loretta McCarthy, partner of Golden Seeds Managing and David Beatty Golden Seeds Business Angel Investor shared the story of Golden Seeds and its phenomenal rise as the one most active business angel group in the United States, 2013.
Paddy Cosgrave, co founder of the Web Summit also shared the success story of “The Web Summit, from 300 local to 20,000 global attendees.” Discussions revolved around hot topics in entrepreneurial opportunities in the global economy, early stage investors and business incubators, the economic impact of angel investment, and start-up accelerators. The discussions were brought closer to home by Anthony Bermingham, Bloom Equity Syndicate of Ireland, Alison Cowzer, Food Syndicate of Ireland, and Mike Ryan of Irrus Investments of Ireland for they talked about the Irish experience in angel syndicates.
The Startup Investors Manifesto was also presented in the EBAN conference. The manifesto is a policy recommendation document which promotes the growth of early stage investment market in Europe, by achieving specific targets by 2017. The manifesto was subscribed to by startup investors from all EU28 and accession countries.
“At first sight, the Manifesto may look quite ambitious to target 15 billion Euros of annual investment by early stage investors in 2017 and 1.5 million new jobs by the same year. However, as discussed in the Congress, the impact of angel investment goes beyond anything we could have anticipated in the past and equity crowdfunding is expected by many to possibly surpass angel activity before that date!” says EBAN Director of Secretariat Luis Galveias.
Last May 19th, the 9th Annual EBAN Awards Dinner took place at the Mansion House in Dublin. The evening honored the individuals and organizations that made significant and substantial contributions to the early stage investments in 2013 and 2014.
Topics on the future of angel investments, the role of family offices, private equity and business angels in the global economy, impact investments and philanthropy were also discussed in the conference. Testimonials from emerging angel markets, women investments and the EBAN institute trainings capped the event.
Companies were given time to do their pitches in between talks. The conference comes with a tour around the historic Dublin Castle.
Watch for more conferences happening around the world by The Soho Loft. The next one may be in your city.
Visit www.thesoholoft.com/upcoming-conferences for more information.
About The Soho Loft (www.thesoholoft.com)
The Soho Loft – The Voice of Capital Formation – is a global financial media company with three divisions in Corporate Communications, Publishing and Expos & Events.
TSL Corporate Communications division handles Public Relations, Investor Relations and Social Media Marketing for its clients. TSL Expos & Events division organizes up to 200+ investor-focused events annually and TSL Publishing division produces financial and entrepreneurial content that is published and syndicated in 100+ leading online publications and growing.
As The Voice of Capital Formation, The Soho Loft Media Group is your global communications partner for your equity and investment strategies.
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