EBAN 7th Congress – The most attended yet

“This is, undoubtedly, the largest congress the European Business Angels Network has ever organised", stated Anthony Clarke, chairman of EBAN, facing the three hundred business angels in the Congress Centre auditorium in Estoril. There were investors from the four corners of the world, and during two days they proved that the network is very alive and shows great dynamism. “It is encouraging to see that the European Commission is supporting business angels, we hope Portugal makes use of chairing the European Union, in the second semester, to develop this activity", challenged Anthony Clarke.

The chairman of EBAN declared that Europe “is still very small in terms of business angels when compared with the United States of America, where in 2006 alone business angels invested more than $26 billion". Anthony Clarke regretted that not all European countries are recognising the importance of these investors, and confirmed that most investments are being channelled to more advanced stages of business, with a lack of support for projects in their initial stage.

The challenge launched by Anthony Clarke seems to have been well received by the representative of the Portuguese Executive power. António Castro Guerra, Deputy Secretary of State for Industry and Innovation, expressed his wish to "work together with the business angels networks, particularly in spreading information and knowledge about this topic", especially because the Executive "has its eyes fixed on the Lisbon Agenda, looking for initiatives that can lead to an increase in employment". António Castro Guerra recalled that the Portuguese government created the two first venture capital companies over 20 years ago, and regretted the lack of entrepreneurship he believes still exists in Portugal, highlighting the role of the two financial tools - Finicia and Fincresce – created to support small and medium enterprises in their processes of innovation.