ESADE BAN, the School’s business angels network, has won the award for Europe’s best private network of business angels. The award was made by The European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds and Early Stage Market Players European Business Angels Network (EBAN for short).
ESADE BAN is a network of investors promoted by ESADE Alumni and acts as a meeting point for investors seeking opportunities and for entrepreneurs wanting early-stage funding. The network currently comprises over 200 private investors, who analyse in excess of 600 projects a year. Over the last four years, it has invested over €15 million in 94 companies. In 2015, ESADE BAN channelled €4 million to 25 entrepreneurial projects. So far in 2016, ESADE BAN has chanelled over €2 million, helping start-ups grow and expand.
ESADE BAN’s biggest investments to date include: Wuaki.tv, Wallapop, Visualnet, RedPoints, Notegraphy, Signaturit, Wave, Talent Clue. The sectors of interest are: technology, healthcare, energy efficiency, industry. A key feature of the network is co-investment by backers through the syndication of operations and training through the ESADE Business Angels School.
International recognition
EBAN - the European business angel network making the award — brings together investors funding the early stages of start-ups. Today, this network comprises in excess of 150 organisations spread throughout over 50 countries. It was set up in 1999 by a pioneering group of investment networks in Europe with the collaboration of the European Commission and the European Association of Development Agencies (EURADA). EBAN represents a sector that invests some €7,500 million a year and that plays a vital role in forging Europe’s future, especially with regard to the funding of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
Xavier Sanchez, Director of ESADE Alumni, stated that: “This award recognises teamwork, whose fruits are harvested in the form of investors cashing in their stakes and entrepreneurs achieving successful launch of their start-ups”. He added, “At ESADE BAN, we strongly believe in training investors and entrepreneurs, and that co-investment and syndication are the best way of funding firms. We choose start-up projects with great care. This ensures that our investors can expect good returns and that entrepreneurs get the funding they need to make their firms a success. The EBAN award encourages us to raise the annual volume of investment and to make the ESADE BAN a Mecca for investors and entrepreneurs, and to boost the economy”. The EBAN prize is the latest in a string of awards won by ESADE BAN. These include the prize for Best Spanish Business Angels, awarded by the Spanish Association of Business Angels (AEBAN) in late 2014.
Betting on start-ups
ESADE BAN shows ESADE and ESADE Alumni’s unwavering commitment to entrepreneurship and start-ups. Here, one should note that The Financial Times rates the ESADE MBA as one of the best in the world for entrepreneurs. There are also the School’s initiatives to boost new businesses: the ESADE Entrepreneurship Institute (EEI), E-Garage, E-Works (the latter two being designed to jump-start and supercharge start-ups). There are also various special training programmes: Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship; From Science to Business (for scientists); Business Angels School (for investors). The last of these is run by ESADE BAN.
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