Scottish business angels inspire Ireland
LINC Scotland is providing the template for a new national association for business angels in Ireland that aims to emulate the Scottish network’s formidable success.
The Dublin-based Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN) is modelling its structure on Scotland’s national association for angel investors, LINC Scotland, which enjoyed record trading last year and is regarded as one of the most effective organisations of its kind in Europe.
Nelson Gray, special projects director at LINC Scotland, has been instrumental in developing the structure for the Irish association. Last month he was invited to give a presentation on angel investment at HBAN’s inaugural conference in Dublin.
HBAN is a joint venture between Enterprise Ireland and InterTradeIreland, both of which have identified LINC Scotland’s approach as best practice. Nelson has advised Diane Roberts, HBAN’s national director, representatives from the national business development agencies and Irish angel investors on how they can use the Scottish network model to maximise investment in their own country.
Nelson said: “This is a fantastic endorsement of the work we are doing in Scotland. Enterprise Ireland and InterTradeIreland both recognised that LINC represented best practice and was the most appropriate model for Ireland. The Dublin conference was a big success and featured the launch of four investment groups with an investment capacity of 10m Euros.
“The strength of LINC is that it is a single national organisation that represents the industry with one voice to the government and enterprise agencies. In addition, we encourage investor groups to form but we do not try to control them. The level of investing that Scotland has managed to put up per head of population is the highest in Europe, according to the latest figures from the European Business Angel Association.”
Diane Roberts, National Director, Halo Business Angel Network, said: “The success to date of LINC Scotland in fostering a growing, sustainable angel capital industry in Scotland has provided some important learning points for HBAN in Ireland. Financing from business angels is still a relatively new concept in Ireland, but has a potentially huge role to play in supporting early stage enterprises and, in consequence, the national economy. As LINC Scotland has done, we are building up syndicates of investors in Ireland and helping to match them with specific investment opportunities.
“We are also looking at the development of co-investment funds to spur investment from both business angels and the public sector in early stage technology and life science firms that are looking to move to the next phase in their development. Again, this is based on a LINC Scotland initiative, when it successfully helped create the Scottish Co-investment Fund, along with Scottish Enterprise. More recently, we were delighted to have Nelson as a guest speaker at our Business Angel Conference held in Dublin last month, but we hope to remain in dialogue with LINC Scotland so we can continue to share ideas on the further growth of the angel financing industry in both of our countries.”
Ends
Notes to editors
LINC Scotland is the national association for business angels in Scotland, with a membership network of hundreds of investors including those operating individually, many of the best known groups and syndicates, and a number of significant private offices.
LINC itself is a private non-profit trust and does not act as investment adviser to any party but rather plays an underlying ’soft infrastructure’ role in supporting the development of the business angel marketplace in Scotland, as well as representing members’ interests at Scottish, UK and European level.
LINC is supported by membership and company fees, Scottish Enterprise, ERDF and its corporate partners. This diverse base helps LINC maintain strict standards of independence, impartiality and confidentiality.
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Issued on behalf of LINC Scotland by The BIG Partnership
Contact: Nicki Sturzaker/Barry McPherson on 0131 555 5522