FiBAN - 10 years of Inspiring Private Investments - Book - Page 24
Members
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Members
Today, FiBAN consists of over 650 active business angels with a growing international reach. Our angels consist of at least 20 different nationalities. The youngest
members are in their twenties and the oldest are more
or less in their seventies. The most common educational backgrounds are business and engineering, but professions vary from cooks to doctors, and from gaming
professionals to lawyers. Currently, 11% of members are
female investors.
Long story short, I kept in touch with some members of
this syndicate, became a FiBAN member, and invested
in a second Finnish startup company that is doing well.
Fingers crossed.”
Pia Erkinheimo, Co-founder of
Women in Tech Finland & Board
Member 2018, FiBAN
“A comment heard more than three
times during the evening in October 2017 at Women in Tech Finland
X FiBAN special pitch event, where
female co-founders presented their great businesses
while angels, male and female, opened their wallets:
‘The overall quality of pitches and companies exceeded
the level of a regular Pitch Finland session’.”
The more versatile, the merrier!
Thomas Desimpel, Belgian Angel
Investor & FiBAN member
“I participated in the Nordic Angel
Program (NAP) and joined a group
of Finnish angel investors. In NAP,
due diligence was put into practice before investing in a startup.
We selected one company but had to reject it afterward
mainly because of our DD concerns/valuation. We as a
group decided to put the money in the runner-up.
“Go Female Founders Go!”
Honorary members
Honorary memberships are awarded to distinguished
investors that have inspired the development of the
Finnish private startup investing ecosystem. So far, six
angels have received this prestige.
Risto Kalske, Founder of FiBAN, Honorary Member:
“The foundations for
FiBAN were built at Sitra
throughout the 2000s
to fix the detected gap
in the venture capital
market. ”
Riku Asikainen
Jan D. Oker-Blom
Ari Korhonen
Juha Kurkinen
Risto Siilasmaa
Risto Kalske
Risto Kalske, Founder of FiBAN, Honorary Member
Pia Erkinheimo, Co-founder of Women in Tech Finland &
Board Member 2018, FiBAN
“Back then, the market neglected startups as a potential
target company. On the other hand, there was a growing but scattered amount of private investors willing to
invest their money and know-how in early-stage companies. As a result of FiBAN’s founding and its amazing
evolvement, Finland has today one of the most efficient
business angel networks in Europe.”
“It ended as one of the
candidates of Guinness’s
book of records as one
of the fastest failing
(nothing wrong with
that) startup.”
Thomas Desimpel, Belgian Angel Investor &
FiBAN member
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