Asian Angel Investors Coming Together in March 2010
Yes there are angel networks around Asia. They do exist, we all know it. But the connections are loose, the networks are pretty fragmented with most major pockets of angel investors residing in Singapore, India, China and smaller pockets around the rest of Southeast Asia. These investors usually invest in their own local areas, with very little opportunities for regional and cross border investments. All that’s going to change with the upcoming Asian Business Angel Forum coming up in March 2010.The inaugural Asian Business Angel Forum (ABAF) will be organized by Business Angel Network Southeast Asia (BANSEA) and is co-organized by Spring Singapore and NUS Enterprise. It will be taking place from 8 – 9 March 2010 at the Pan Pacific Marina Hotel in Singapore. It will be the first time whereby business angels, early stage venture capitalists and entrepreneurs from all across Asia gather for cross-border collaboration and investment opportunities. This will also be a great opportunity for investors to meet a variety of up-and-coming early stage startups from across the region, with the early opportunity of investing in them.
Entrepreneurs
The ones who gain the most from this event are the definitely the entrepreneurs. Judging from the amount of angel investors invited for the event and the “spare change” most of them have, we’re talking about about millions of dollars of potential investments waiting to happen. Apart from finances, there’s the regional element to it as well. If an entrepreneurs gets his company funded by multiple angels across multiple regions (that’s the whole point in bringing them together in the first place), he immediately gets to tap on a wealth of networks and market expertise across the region. This will not only aid his/her “regionalization” efforts and open up his/her product to bigger/newer markets, but will also expose the entrepreneur to new, dynamic industries and problems to solve in future (i.e. more new companies for the entrepreneur to set up in future). Interested entrepreneurs should definitely check this out and take advantage of this opportunity.
Up and Coming Investors
Let’s face it, there are loads of rich people in Asia. Many of them want to get into investments, especially startups, but most don’t know where to start. This isn’t just an Asian problem, but a global one. The technology startup industry is so complex and fast moving, that any interested investor would be lost in understanding the market dynamics, various platforms and technologies and the rapidly shifting mindsets of consumers. Y Combinator, an early stage investment firm, has identified this problem and wishes to do something about it. Their AngelConf event, coincidentally happening a few days before the ABAF event, will help to educate people interested in angel investing. I think the ABAF platform is a great platform to start that with. The quality of speakers attending the event (Aydin Senkut, investors in Mint.com, VentureBeat and Tapulous and James Hong, Co-founder of Hot or Not) is very high, with many good learning opportunities available for people keen on investing in startups. What’s more, it will be a good chance to get to meet other investors and entrepreneurs, which may translate to potential investment opportunities in future.
For those interested in attending the event, you can sign up here. If you’re an entrepreneur, it’s definitely well worth the cost, in my opinion.
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