Halo Business Angel Partnership
John Phelan
September 2014
Funding your Business Development
Halo Business Angel Partnership
What We Do
• Match companies seeking funding with investors who are actively
seeking to invest in start-up and early-stage companies
• Match on the basis of funding and skills requirements (Smart
Money)
• 600+ angel investors registered nationally
• 700+ companies registered and presented to the network
• ICT start-ups most common – other sectors also
www.businessangels.ie
Case study – Storyful- News from Social Media
• 2010- Mark Little- Presenter of current affairs program with local RTE TV
station
• Storyful worked with Dublin BIC, to sharpen the value proposition
• Filtering & curating “News from Noise” - easier story to tell and sell!
• Raised initial round of €430K
• One HBAP angel committed very early- His rationale was that he liked
Mark and believed that the second promoter in the USA could open
doors to the newsrooms and then Mark could sell it!
• Subsequent rounds totalling €3 million
• Storyful was sold to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for €18 million in
December 2013
Impact
• Total Number of Deals - 148 (to 31/3/2014)
• 85% survival Rate
• Total invested - €65,485,000 (Average investment €442k)
• Angel investment - €25,878,000 (average €175k)
• Average employees - 10.3 (up from 2.5 at time of investment)
What Angels want
o Ambitious, growth-orientated companies
o Grounded in reality
o Good promoter(s)/credible management
o With a good business proposition
o Investor Ready Business Plan
o Realistic about what is involved in attracting investment
o Understand the voyage to be undertaken!
o Respect the INVESTORS Capital
Observations
• Respect the Investor’s money
• Respect the Market
• Balance Entrepreneurial spirit & vision with reality
• Engage the market asap
• Surround yourself with experience – “you cannot live long enough
to make all the mistakes yourself”
• Embed a “Marketing Centric” philosophy
• Goal: Sustainable competitive advantage
• VALUE Proposition
Process
• Register
• Application Form on www.businessangels.ie
• Submit Investor Ready Business Plan
• 1-page overview prepared for company sign-off
• Ready to engage with Investor Base
• Via Electronic Circulation
• Investor Forum – 3 companies present, 14 angels
• Timing?
• 2 months to 6 months
• Post-investment
• Some attend board meetings and are hands-on
.....others less so
How to apply?
Give me a call 01-410 0818 or e-mail me
Go for a coffee, Register- If we can add value
Circulate or Forum (Dragons Den without the drama)
E-mail- [email protected]
www.businessangels.ie
Halo Business Angel Partnership
Thank you