EUROPEAN BUSINESS ANGEL NETWORK EUROPEAN ... - Idepa

EUROPEAN BUSINESS ANGEL NETWORK - Directory of Network 2005
SWEDEN
2005
The business angel community in Sweden is expanding with increased investments activity
and enhanced cooperation between regional BANs. As the formal VC market now tends to
invest more funds into later stage companies, there is a lack of funding for early stage
businesses. This equity gap has significantly raised the awareness of the business angel
concept in Sweden. In order to further increase business angel investments into early stage
companies, NUTEK – the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth –has
supported the creation and development of regional BANs in Sweden. A number of BANs are
now operational throughout the country and the cooperation between the BANs is increasing.
Going forward, the Swedish Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (SVCA) will be
responsible for supporting the regional BANs on a national level, as well as for enhancing the
level of knowledge about business angel activities in general.
2. Statistics
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Number of BANs 2 1
2 1
2 3
24 ~30
Number of Business Angels 85 140 250 ~5000 ~5000
Number of deals n/a n/a n/a n/a >100
Number of accredited projects n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Number of commercial BANs 0 1 1 2 3
Number of non-commercial BANs 1 1 1 21 27
Number of national BANs 0 1 1 0 0
Number of regional BANs 0 5 6 23 ~30
National association 1 1 1 1 1
3. BAN legal status
The majority of BANs are organized as networks within non-profit entrepreneurial networks,
consulting firms or state-supported organisations.
4. National association
In 2002, NUTEK launched a pilot scheme, with the aim of increasing the number of regional
BANs in Sweden, thus supporting the growth of business angel investments in general. At the
end of 2004, close to 30 BANs were already active. Most of the BANs are non-commercial,
hence striving to finance their activities through sponsorships and other financial sources.
In 2005 NUTEK gave the Swedish Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (SVCA) the
mandate to act as a national association for business angels in Sweden and to work as a
support organisation for the regional BANs.
5. Contact
Contact person SVCA: Maria Nilsson
Grev Turegatan 18
114 46 Stockholm
1 For the year 2000 and 2001, we considered that only Norkkoping and ALMI were acting as BANs.
2 About 30 Networks have received funding from NUTEK. 8 are currently in operation and 22 are in the
process of creation.
155
M