The Growceanu business angel platform is organising “Invest in Moonicorns – The Art of Angel Investment” on 27-28 October, an event which aims to become the most important meeting place for business angel investors in Central and Eastern Europe. The event will take place in Timisoara at the Faber centre and is aimed at business angel investors, as well as people with very high incomes or wealth over $1 million.
Most of these high net worth individuals or HNWIs invest in real estate, some also in the stock market. But less than 1% of HNWIs put their money in startups, i.e. high-tech companies with high growth potential. Growceanu calls these companies moonicorns because, unlike tech unicorns – companies valued at more than $1 billion – the startups which receive business ange investment are unknown, still in the dark, so to speak, but once discovered can grow exponentially with investor support.
In the modern economic reality, startups have a major impact. A business angel contributes to their formation and healthy growth by offering not only money, but also their expertise gained through experience, and personal network.
The “Invest in Moonicorns” conference aims to introduce investors to this high-potential asset class. The topics addressed follow the investment logic of this asset class: how do startups fit in an investment portfolio, how we can invest in such companies most easily, how to evaluate a startup, how to make investment decisions, successful examples, as well as a discussion of the local and national tech entrepreneurship ecosystem in the European context, and its development plans.
The “Winning Together” panel will also feature success stories of angels and founders who have worked and are working together to make companies like Rayscape and Bright Spaces successful.
Speakers confirmed so far include Dan Călugăreanu – Partner, Early Game Ventures; Nina Dremelj – European Business Angel Network board member; Remus Radvan – Venture Strategy at Wayra; Sorin Maxim – West RDA Director; Dominic Fritz – Mayor of Timișoara.
“This is one of the few events in Romania dedicated to angel investors. At the same time, it creates an extraordinary opportunity for Timisoara to become the benchmark for angel investment in Central and Eastern Europe. We also want to give as many high net worth people as possible a good understanding of what such investments entail and how they can become angel investors. Most importantly, we see early stage startup investment becoming a widely recognised and indispensable asset class,” says Ciprian Man, Growceanu co-founder.
In Romania, there are about 91,000 high – income people or individuals whose wealth exceeds $1 million, according to Knight Frank’s Global Wealth Sizing Model study.
Growceanu is mainly aimed at investors with an investment budget of €40,000-250,000 over two to three years who want to build a portfolio of at least 8-10 startups.
The Growceanu community includes around 1,000 people in this category, and some of them have invested over €2.2 million in early stage startups over the last three years.
