The investment of business angels in Research and Innovation (R&I) is a crucial complement to supporting start-up companies through national incentives to invest. It represents the most significant source of early stage equity investment in young and R&I firms, and angels invest throughout Europe. However, little is known about business angels and their investment behaviour throughout European venture capital markets. This report presents the outcome of a European Commission study aimed at filling this gap, in which EBAN participated in as a partner organization together with Inova+, ZEW and Business Angels Europe.
Business Angels and their impact on firms were characterized through a survey of European business angels as well as interviews with business angels and business angel-backed firms. Moreover, extensive field research was done on the national context business angels operate in as well as policy measures aimed at supporting business angels. In what follows below, a short overview of the main findings is presented.
The European Commission study “Understanding the Nature and Impact of the business angels in Funding Research and Innovation” has been prepared for the European Commission, however it only reflects the views of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which might be made of the information contained therein. More information on the European Union is available on the internet (http://europa.eu).