From the 14th to the 16th of December 2014, the Turkish business angel association (TBAA) and the Istanbul Stock Exchange (Borsa Istanbul) organised a European Business Angels Investment Forum 2014 entitled "Access to finance from start-up to scale-up to exits".

The European Business Angels Network (EBAN) is an international, non profit organisation, bringing together member organisations and individuals from Europe and beyond. EBAN represents a sector estimated to invest 5.1 billion Euros per year and comprises 260.000 angel investors. In 2012, almost 3,000 companies were funded through business angel networks and 17,800 new jobs were created. A business angel is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity.

The PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD) has actively been cooperating with EBAN since last year's EBAN conference in Vienna, and after visiting this years` conferences in Nova Gorica and Helsinki, VZMD President Mr Kristjan Verbič accompanied by the investo.TV team, also attended the events in Istanbul within the framework of this year's 9th tour of the VZMD international business-investment programmes Invest to Slovenia – investo.si and International Investors` Network – investo.international.

The European Commission has also recognised the importance of angel investment. EU based companies can obtain EU funding and support through the Horizon 2020 programme, while the European Angels Fund works hand-in-hand with Business Angels and helps them to increase their investment capacity by co-investing into innovative companies in the seed, early or growth stage.

Before the Istanbul conference, the VZMD President also attended the Investors Conference organized by the European Federation of Financial Services Users – Better Finance in Wiesbaden and Crowdfunding convention organized by the European Crowdfunding Network (ECN) in Paris, where he also met with the EBAN President, Ms. Candace Johnson. Crowdfunding is a popular practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people, typically via the internet.

To help start-ups fill the equity gap, Borsa Istanbul introduced a Private Market platform which allows companies to have access to finances without going public, providing liquidity for company partners intending to sell their shares and offering investors the chance to find buyers to liquidate their investments.

As usual, notable presentations of companies, institutions and investment projects included in the two VZMD business-investment programmes: Invest to Slovenia and International Investors` Network were also presented during all occasions, events and conferences. 

After this year's successful presentations in Belgrade, Bled, Bratislava, Brussels, Buenos Airres, Copenhagen, Grodno, Helsinki, Istanbul,   Madrid, Montevideo, New York, New Delhi,  Ouagadougou, Paris, Piran, Praya, Reykjavik, Teheran, Warsaw, Wiesbaden, Yaroslavl, and last year's in Astana, Almaty, Bled,  Baku, Brussels, Buffalo, Bukarest, Cape Town, Celje,  Dubai,   Kiev,  Ljubljana,  Madrid, Minsk, Moscow, New Delhi,  Tokio,  Toronto, Vienna, and Zagreb, the two VZMD international business-investment programmes continue to provide for their partners effective presence and presentations on five continents!

If you would like to take part in our events and activities, you are kindly invited to contact the VZMD investo.si programme coordinator by phone +386 31 770 771 or e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..