Halo Business Angel Network announce National Conference

HBAN (Halo Business Angel Network), the all-island organisation responsible for the promotion of business angel investment, will host its National Conference, Quality deal flow and leveraging the HBAN network, on Thursday 8th February in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. The event is Ireland’s only angel investment-focused national conference and is targeted at new angels who are looking for structured and quality deal flow. The event will also be of interest to those looking to invest and create de-risked portfolios with likeminded investors through syndicates.

There will be a number of international speakers at the conference including super angel Christopher Mirabile and serial tech entrepreneur Peter Cowley who can both draw on the experience of having made more than 130 angel investments between them.

Christopher Mirabile has personally made more than 70 angel investments and is the Chair Emeritus of the Angel Capital Association in the US, managing director at Launchpad Venture Group and the co-founder of angel portfolio management tool – Seraf Investor. Christopher among many other roles has also served as a public CFO with Irish Software company IONA Technologies and will discuss his experiences as a business angel and his learnings from investing.

Peter Cowley founded and ran over 10 businesses in technology and property over the last 35years. He has built up a portfolio of more than 60 angel investments with three good exits and several failures. He is the WBAF Best Angel Investor of the World in February 2017 and was UK Angel of the Year 2014/15. He has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs and on the board of eight start-ups.

At the event, speakers and experts will talk about their experiences of angel investing, leveraging the HBAN network and international HBAN syndicates. There will also be workshops on portfolio management, exit strategies and due diligence. In addition, a number of successful companies will be presenting to the conference delegates.

A joint initiative of Enterprise Ireland and InterTradeIreland, HBAN’s service includes identifying high-potential start-ups and going through a process of vetting, preparing and confirming these companies as investor-ready. These start-ups then go on to present to potential investors at different HBAN-organised investor forums and syndicate meetings.

Angel investing forms an important part of the start-up ecosystem in Ireland. The €13.6 million invested by HBAN angels in 2016 was a 25% increase on the amount invested the previous year. In the last 10 years, HBAN angels invested over €80 million in Irish start-ups. These investments have leveraged a further €124 million from other public and private funds, bringing the total invested to €204 million.

The conference is open to non-HBAN members who want to see how the HBAN network works, connect with HBAN angels and listen to pitches from high-potential start-ups. Tickets for the conference are priced at €50 (free for members of HBAN) and are available now.

For more information about the event and to register, please visit: www.hban.org/conference