Statistics Compendium

EBAN 2014

5.5b
 Statistics Compendium 2014

The Statistics Compendium is Europe’s most extensive annual research on the activity of
business angels and business angel networks. It provides information on the overall early
stage market, on how business angel networks operate and an insight into their investment
attitudes.

EBAN’s Statistics Compendium is based on the information provided by European business

angel networks (hereafter BANs), Federations of BANs, individual business angels and other
validated early stage investors which responded to EBAN’s Survey. The Survey was
conducted in 2014 and reported activities which took place in 2013. The collection of data
was persued through a web form activated from the EBAN website or directly e-mailed to
the Secretariat of EBAN through a pre-fomated survey.

The figures presented in this report are not representative of the entire European market.
Moreover, it is important to point out that the number of respondents differs y-o-y and not
all the identified players participated in the survey. Also the survey fails short on accounting
for the so called “invisible market”, which represents a consistent portion of the overall
business angels’ investments.

EBAN expresses its recognition to all contributors who provided data to the current research
as well as to Carlotta Larcher, student of Bocconi University (Italy) who directly colaborated
with the Secretariat of EBAN for the preparation of the Statistics Compendium.

DISCLAIMER

Due to its nature, the early stage investment market and especially the business angels investment
market is difficult to quantify. An important percentage of the total investments are informal and not
publicly reported.

The information presented and analysed in this document is based on self-reported data by investors
and thus cannot be verified. By no means this report can represent the full extent of the early stage
investment activity in Europe.

Knowing the underlying limitations of the publication, our main objective for this document is to
provide a better understanding of the European market based in the activities of a given sample.

The current compendium comprises information collected thought direct surveys from 65 business
angel networks, 4 national federations and 16 other early stage investors.

Additional data were collected from different sources namely from Zephyr, Crunchbase, market
reports, national publications, press articles and research papers.

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Statistics Compendium 2014

EBAN Secretariat
Rue de la Science 14b
1040 – Bruxelles
T : +32 2 626 20 62
F : +32 2 626 20 69
E: info@eban.org
W: www.eban.org

Copyright © 2014 EBAN. All rights reserved.

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 Statistics Compendium 2014

Table of contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 1
Overview of total European Early Stage Investment .............................................................................. 2
Overview of European Angel Market ...................................................................................................... 3
Angel Investment by Country .................................................................................................................. 5
Operational figures.................................................................................................................................. 7
Investment options ................................................................................................................................. 8
1. SECTORS OF INVESTMENT ......................................................................................................................... 8
2. DEVELOPMENT STAGE OF INVESTEE .......................................................................................................... 8
3. LOCATION OF INVESTMENT ....................................................................................................................... 9
4. CO-INVESTMENT ........................................................................................................................................ 9
5. DISTRIBUTION OF DEALS ............................................................................................................................ 9
6. SELECTION FILTER .................................................................................................................................... 10
Deal Flow ............................................................................................................................................... 10
Exits ....................................................................................................................................................... 11
Business Angel Networks Management ................................................................................................ 11
1. FUNDING SOURCES .................................................................................................................................. 11
2. SERVICES .................................................................................................................................................. 11
3. MEMBERSHIP ........................................................................................................................................... 12
4. CHARGED FEES ......................................................................................................................................... 13

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 Statistics Compendium 2014

Executive Summary

Angel investment in Europe increased to 5.5 billion Euros in 2013, a growth of 8,7% from 2012,
remaining the main financier of European startups. The investors’ community grew to 271.000
investors which closed 33.430 deals last year. Overall, taking in consideration other early stage
investors operating in Europe, the sector reached €7,5b of investment in 2013.

Within the visible market, the United Kingdom continues to be the leading country with 84,4 millions
invested in 535 companies. Spain comes second with 57,6 million Euros of investment followed by
Russia with 41,8 million Euros. Despite the good performance of mature markets, it’s worth
highlighting smaller players such as Estonia, country with a recently created first business angel
network (BAN) which led to 4,7 million Euros of investment, making it the top performing country
when comparing the investment per GDP ratio.

The main sector of investment is ICT (32%), followed by biotech & life sciences (10%), mobile (10%)
and manufacturing (10%). The majority of the targeted companies (87%) are in early stages, notably
startup, seed and pre-seed stages. Despite the existence of many international investment networks,
cross-border investment remains marginal with 96% of the deals taking place in the country of the
investor.

Co-investment was the rule in 2013. Only 3% of the respondents to the survey didn’t co-invest with
other early stage investment players. This practice is most of all common between business angels
but was extended to many other players such as private and public early stage funds.

The most relevant evidence of angel activity in addition to the investment per si, is the number and
level of activity of business angel networks across Europe. These angel groups have been growing
consistently and are today estimated at 468 BANs and show a strong internal dynamic with an
average of 16% of new members. Although providing a critical and wide range of services to
entrepreneurs and investors, BANs and angel Federations are not yet monetizing adequately the
service they provide and are still relying mostly in funding from external/ parent organisations.

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 Statistics Compendium 2014

Overview of total European Early Stage Investment

EBAN, initially created as an European Business Angels Network, has in the past years extended its reach
to different actors and investors of the European early stage investment ecosystem. As a result of that
enlarged commitment, we start this report with an overview of the overal European early stage
investment market, comprisinginformation collected by EBAN together with data recently released by
EVCA1 on early stage investments. An estimation of the gross figures of the equity crowdfunding market
was also produced by EBAN based in 2012 data released by Massolution 2 and recent trends.
Unfortunately no system is yet in place to identify a more precise situation of the crowdfunding market
in Europe.

The total European early stage investment market is estimated to be worth 7,5 billion Euros. Business
angels represent the biggest share of the investment market with 5,5 billion Euros of investment,
followed by the venture capital industry investing 2 billion Euros in early stages. Equity crowdfunding
investments are still marginal but expected to grow considerably in the coming years.

7,5 b€ 5,5b€ 2b€ 80 m€

European Early Business Angels Early Stage VCs Equity
Stage Investment Crowdfunding

Fig. 1 - The three main areas of early stage investment in Europe. Figures in M€.

1
EVCA 2014 (http://www.evca.eu/research/activity-data/annual-activity-statistics/)
2
http://www.massolution.com/

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 Statistics Compendium 2014

Overview of European Angel Market

The European angel investment market increased 8,7% in 2013, reporting a new record of 5.543 million
Euros of investment. The market has been growing in all of the monitored items: investment amount,
number of investments and number of business angels. The impact in the economy through jobs
created is also increasing as a consequence of the increased amounts in play.

2011 2012 2013

Visible market 427 509 554
Reported by BANs or
298 330 431
Federations
Investment by non-
129 179 123
reported BANs
Share of visible market 9% 10% 10%
Non-visible market 4317 4590 4989

Total Investment 4.744 5.099 5.543

# Investments 26.158 29.130 33.430

# Jobs created 154.597 178.813 184.170
# Business Angels 241.444 261.430 271.000

Fig. 2 - Break down of angel investment by visible and non-visible market; Investment values in million Euros.

As the table above shows, we can only perceive angel investment through the visible part of the market.
The estimation of the visible market is an assumption EBAN considers taking into consideration previous
surveys and reports published3. As for 2013, we considered a visible market of 10%, at the same level of
the one reported in 2012. By visible market we consider activity undertaken by investors gathered in
business angel networks and which either have a direct relation with EBAN or those reporting through a
federation. It also comprises networks from which access to information is limited but its existence and
activity is known by other players of the industry.

The chart below illustrates the number of business angels operating in BANs as per comparison with the
full estimated angel market.

Fig. 2 – Comparison of business angels

operating associated to BANs and total
estimated number of business angels.

3
«Evaluation of EU Member States’ Business Angel Markets and Policies” CSES, 2012

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 Statistics Compendium 2014

Business angel networks have been growing in number at an average of 17% for the past 10 years. In 2013, the
number of active networks increased to 468.

Fig. 3 – Number of active business angel networks in Europe.

As mentioned above, not all BANs are affiliated to federations or are directly monitored by EBAN. Our
estimation comprises 123 BANs (26%) which are either operating in countries where access to information is
more difficult or which operate without being linked to any national body or international network.

Fig. 4 – Comparison of directly monitored networks with total number of BANs in Europe.

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 Statistics Compendium 2014

Angel Investment by Country

The United Kingdom continues to be the leading European angel market with €84,4 million of
investment having reported an annual growth of 24%. Spain, Russia and France are the following biggest
players. This year we were able to directly monitor 26 countries, nine more than last year which
considerably increases the perspective and the diversity of the European market.

BA Inv. BA Inv. Average Average Inv.

# Companies 2013 2012 Jobs Inv. per Average Inv. per BAN
# BAs # BANs financed M€ YoY M€ created company (€) per BA (€) (M€)

UK 4350 38 535 84,4 24% 68,3 2354 157.757 19.402 2,2

Spain 2520 63 245 57,6 -8% 62,5 1485 235.102 22.857 0,9
Russia 220 13 165 41,8 n.a. 808 253.030 189.773 3,2
France 4320 83 376 41,1 0% 40,9 1807 109.176 9.502 0,5
Germany 1510 37 185 35,1 26% 27,9 916 189.838 23.258 0,9
Finland 490 12 208 26,4 -7% 28,4 916 126.683 53.776 2,2
Sweden 762 11 110 19,4 -17% 23,2 506 175.909 25.394 1,8
Turkey 450 10 61 14,7 40% 10,5 400 240.984 32.667 1,5
Portugal 611 13 73 13,8 19% 11,6 497 189.000 22.581 1,1
Switzerland 424 7 44 13,3 15% 11,6 130 302.273 31.368 1,9
Ireland 480 6 59 13,2 9% 12,1 286 222.966 27.406 2,2
Denmark 155 5 102 11,8 n.a. 539 115.882 76.258 2,4
Belgium 350 6 67 10,0 96% 5,1 332 149.254 28.571 1,7
Italy 760 11 43 9,9 -10% 11,0 282 230.233 13.026 0,9
Netherlands 810 11 58 9,8 -3% 10,1 281 169.310 12.123 0,9
Poland 160 4 38 6,6 n.a. 233 173.158 41.125 1,6
Estonia 52 1 83 4,7 n.a. 457 56.108 89.558 4,7
Norway 110 3 19 4,2 n.a. 88 222.105 38.364 1,4
Austria 240 2 24 2,9 n.a. 132 121.000 12.100 1,5
Bulgaria 52 2 37 2,9 n.a. 163 77.027 54.808 1,4
Greece 52 2 18 2,1 40% 1,5 99 116.667 40.385 1,1
Lithuannia 80 1 18 2,0 -81% 10,9 77 112.556 25.325 2,0
Luxembourg 80 1 17 1,6 433% 0,3 59 94.118 20.000 1,6
Croatia 25 1 10 0,8 n.a. 42 75.000 30.000 0,8
Serbia 25 1 6 0,7 -7% 0,7 28 108.333 26.000 0,7
Cyprus 39 1 2 0,6 n.a. 14 310.000 15.897 0,6

Fig. 4 –Angel investment by country

The chart below features the evolution of business angel investment by country. While market growth
varies considerably from country to country, we observe a positive evolution in mid-table countries
which may demonstrate a greater maturity of these markets. This happens with Turkey, Portugal,
Switzerland, Ireland and Belgium. On the other hand, other traditionally active countries such as Finland,
Sweden, Italy and The Netherlands report an activity decrease.

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 Statistics Compendium 2014

Fig. 5 – Evolution of angel investment by country (2012-2013); Amounts in M€

A different perspective is provided below when compared the reported angel activity with each
country’s GDP. In this case, a smaller country gains prominency (Estonia), while countries with higher
GDP push the average down to 0,000028 ratio:

Fig. 6 – Ratio angel investment/ GDP. GDP figures of 2013 from the International Monetary Fund

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 Statistics Compendium 2014

If we bring the comparison to the level of business angel network’s activity, we notice that Estonia, with
a single operating BAN, take the leadership position on a chart that leaves the European average at
€1.184M. On the other hand, France, a country with a mature network of angel networks (83), fails to
achieve more activity from its existing BANs.

Fig. 7 – Performance of BANs by country

Operational figures

The amount invested per company has decreased in the past three years. European investment per deal
remains considerably lower than the one recorded in the US (€260k).

At the BAN level, the average investment amount rises to 1,184 million Euros, an annual increase that
shows a tendency for aggregation in BANs.

Individual angel investment remains in the average of 20.000 Euros. With angel syndication becoming a
common word across Europe, one could have had expected this figure to decrease.

2011 2012 2013

Average Investment per company (€) 181.400 174.833 165.787

Average Investment per BAN (€) 1.041.616 1.107.081 1.184.378

Average Investment per BA (€) 19.653 19.480 20.437

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 Statistics Compendium 2014

Investment options

1. SECTORS OF INVESTMENT

Preference of investment goes to the ICT sector as the charts below demonstrate. Apart from ICT, there is
an homogeneous distribution of investment with manufacturing, biotech, life sciences and mobile health
care & medtech recording the top preferences of surveyed early stage investors. There is no significant
difference between sector preferences when considered per deal and per value.

Fig. 8 Sectors distribution in 2013 by investment amount (left) and number of deals (right)

2. DEVELOPMENT STAGE OF INVESTEE

Investments concentrated in earlier stages (pre-seed, seed Stages of development:

 Pre-seed - Financing of ideas and research projects,
and start-up). Despite the low amounts per comparison with the aim of building a commercial company
with the other stages, evidence was recorded amongt buy- around it later on.
 Seed - Financing provided to research, assess and
out/ turnaround and pre-IPO stages.
develop an initial concept before a business has
reached the start-up phase.
 Early stage and start-up - Financing provided to
companies for product development and initial
marketing. Companies may be in the process of being
set up or may have been in business for a short time,
but have not sold their product commercially.
 Expansion - Investment aimed at reaching the scale of
industrial production, upgrading the production
facilities and attracting further employees.
 Buy-out and turnaround - liquidation phase or
corporate renewal.
 Pre-IPO - Financing is provided for a company
expected to “go public” within six months to a year.
The funds are often used to finance various
requirements prior to making a public offering or
some other major restructuring event.
Fig. 9 Investments by investee’s development stage

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 Statistics Compendium 2014

3. LOCATION OF INVESTMENT

Cross-border investment remains marginal as investments in the same country of the investor accounted
for 96% of the deals made in 2013. Deals inside and outside the investors’ region are 52% and 44%
respectively. Investment in other European countries accounted for 4% of the deals while investment
outside Europe represented only 1% of investments.

4. CO-INVESTMENT

As per the data collected, co-investment is the norm. Investing alongside other business angels is the major
preference but other types of investors also play a vital role as the chart below details.

Fig. 10 Co-investment in 2013

5. DISTRIBUTION OF DEALS

New deals accounted for 61% of networks’ activity in 2013 followed by follow-on rounds which
represented 1/3 of a network’s deals. Exits represent 6% of deal activity.

Fig. 11 Distribution by types of deals

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 Statistics Compendium 2014

6. SELECTION FILTER

The majority of business plans received still remain unselected for further evaluation. In fact, only 23% of
business proposals are circulated for a more serious assessement by investors or the investment
committee. As a result, for every 100 business plans received only 6 achieve funding. However, if we
exclude re-investments, the investment rate decreases to 4% of successful investments as follow on
investments represent 33% of investments.

100 Business Plans received

23 Business Plans evaluated

6 Deals funded

Fig. 12 Funding funnel

Deal Flow

Personal recommendation is the leading deal flow source for many investors. However, representing only
20% of total leads received, we can say the market is fairly open nowadays to non-related individuals who
can approach investors in events, through the internet amongst many other means.

Fig. 13 Deal flow sources in 2013

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Exits

Investors and networks of investors are more used to report investments than exits. In many occasions,
especially in the context of business angel networks, these are difficult to track as investors hold no
obligation to report back to the network. Nevertheless, according to the figures reported, exits represented
6% of the total deals of a network and in 53% of the situations they generated a positive return to the
investors.

Business Angel Networks Management

1. FUNDING SOURCES

Both business angel networks and business angel federations have as main sources of funding external
financiers such as parent organisations, sponsorship or regional development funds (national funds and
European funds represent no more than 11% of funding). Activity related sources of funding remain low
with fees from bsuiness angels and success fees recording only 20% of revenues in BANs and 15% in
Federations. The remaining sources of funding are not negletable and comprise revenues associated with
the organisation of events and trainings.

Business Angel Networks (BANs) Business Angel Federations

Fig. 14 Funding sources of BANs and Federations.

2. SERVICES

Services provided by Federations and BANs are very alike and express the role of these organisations in the
ecosystem. It’s worth noting that training and the promotion of interaction between entrepreneurs and investors

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 Statistics Compendium 2014

either offline in events or online through specific platforms play a significant role. Services which may be perceived as
more technical (eg. syndication, due diligence support or co-investment schemes) are only provided by some of the
surveyed organisations.

Fig. 15 Distribution of services offered by BANs and by Federations in 2013

3. MEMBERSHIP

BAN’s demonstrated a considerable dynamic in the evolution of membership reporting an average

of 16% new members and 8,6% leaving members. There are a multitude of sources of new
members and as expected in an informal sector, current members and word of mouth play a
major role in the attraction of new members.

Fig. 9 Business angels’ recruitment channels

Active angels - investors who participate in metings on a regular basis and who are actively looking for
investments, represent 53% of membership. According to the surveys received, women investors represent
today only 4,1% of BAN’s members. Although the figure goes up to 20-30% in some networks, the average
states a clear under representation of women in the sector.

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 Statistics Compendium 2014

4. CHARGED FEES

Fees charged by BANs (and Federations in the case of membership fees) diverge considerably and show
signs of a still imature market in which many of the services provided in the previous point are executed
free of charge. Less than 60% of European BANs charge fees to their investors with membership costing
between €200 and near €600 per year. On the other hand, fees charged to entrepreneurs range from €200
to €600 for company presentations and from €145 to €750 for processing of application, although only 15%
of respondents charge for these services. Several BANs also propose a success fee to entrepreneurs which,
according to the surveys collected, ranges from 3 to 5%. To charge success fees to investors is not yet a
common practice.

Fig. 10 Charged fees by BANs.

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