EUROPEAN BUSINESS ANGEL NETWORK EUROPEAN ... - Idepa

1. Background
EUROPEAN BUSINESS ANGEL NETWORK - Directory of Network 2005
FINLAND
2005
BA activities Finland emerged as organised structures in 1996 under the leadership of SITRA,
a formal seed and venture capital fund. SITRA is a nation wide organisation. For the first 5
years the activity was more based on the private activities of BAs on a database basis. The
concept was restructured in 2001: the new concept of pre-seed finance was launched in May
2001, including two major instruments: LIKSA and INTRO. LIKSA is a programme for
professional completion of business plans, arranged by SITRA and Tekes. INTRO is a
marketplace for business angels and other venture capitalists to meet technology companies
in the start-up or restructuring phase. This well functioning platform has shown, that far too
many investments fail due to start-ups’ lack of marketing & sales professionalism. As an
answer to this, since the beginning of this year, INTRO also offers a channel (DIILI) for
marketing & sales professionals to look for a new ‘entrepreneurial’ career in companies
presented at the INTRO marketplace.
2. Statistics
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Mid
2005
Number of BANs (1) (1) (1) (1) (1) (1) 1 1 1 1
Number
Angels
of Business
- 90 207 253 284
Number of deals - 12 10 12 7
Number
projects
of accredited
- 35 52 41 21
Number of commercial
- 1 0 0 0
BANs
Number of national BANs - 0 0 0 0
Number of regional BANs - - - - -
National association - 1 1 1 1
(1)During the period 1997-2001, the BA activities of SITRA can be presented as follows:
• BA: between 60 and 150
• n. of deals: between 8 and 12 per year
• n. of accredited projects: between 60 and 100
3. BAN legal status
INTRO is an initiative started by SITRA, involved in private investors’ venture capital activities,
with a clear vision to empower public/private partnerships.
4. EBAN members
SITRA
37