WORLD EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2018: SALUTING THE YEAR’S SUCCESSES The Excellence Awards salute those who stand out in imagining, discussing, and shaping the future of an entrepreneurial world. 19 February 2018, Istanbul With its Excellence Awards, the World Business Angels Investment Forum looks beyond borders. It seeks to promote and nurture start-ups, scale-ups, high-growth businesses, SMEs, angel investors, and a dynamic business community throughout the world. From business angels to policymakers to academics, the Awards salute those who stand out in imagining, discussing, and shaping the future of an entrepreneurial World. Given the diverse challenges the world is facing in the twenty-first century, it is important to recognize that entrepreneurship and angel investment can have a major impact on our future, offering new ways to increase economic opportunities and to foster social justice. The World Business Angels Investment Forum aims to contribute to that impact by driving positive changes that will facilitate entrepreneurship. Fostering entrepreneurship whose effects can be felt in both economic and social arenas is a hallmark of the World Business Angels Investment Forum. I invite you to join our global efforts to ease access to smart finance. As the Chair of the World Business Angels Investment Forum, I invite you to join us in our global efforts to ease access to smart finance, which will help create more jobs and more social justice worldwide. Your efforts to convert the world economy into a smart economy in cooperation with the World Business Angels Investment Forum are very important. I invite you to apply for or nominate a colleague for the World Excellence Awards 2017 at the www.wbaforum.org By working together across borders, with a common vision, and with these smart dynamics in mind, we are well placed to create positive change in the global economy. Yours sincerely,
Baybars Altuntas
Chairman, World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF)
CATEGORIES The annual World Business Angels Investment Forum Excellence Awards celebrate high growth and success in the angel and early stage investment market - recognising the fastest growing brands and acknowledging the founders, angels, crowdfund and early stage venture capital investors behind them. Open to both companies and investors, these Awards seek to recognise the year’s most disruptive new market entrants and provide a definitive list of the most exciting ‘ones to watch’ in the angel and early stage investment space. The World Business Angels Investment Forum Excellence Awards recognize notable activities in the following fields in 2017 throughout world saluting outstanding contributors to entrepreneurship and the angel investment ecosystems globally. • The Best Angel Investor • The Best Business Angel Network • The Best Exit • The Best Corporate Venture • The Best Crowdfunding Platform • The Best Academician on Entrepreneurship • The Best Government Supporting Entrepreneurship • The Best Governmental Agency Supporting Entrepreneurship • The Best Stock Exchange Backing Startups • The Best Venture Capitalist • The Best Fund for Startups • The Best Initiative on Supporting Innovation, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
WORLD’S TOP AWARDS & VIP GALA DINNER World’s Top Awards & VIP Gala Dinner Winners are announced in VIP Gala Awards Dinner event which brings together over 200 leading players from across the early stage investment industry to join in celebrating the Awards winners highlighting the year’s most innovative angel-backed businesses and investors from across the world.The VIP Gala Dinner brings together over 200 thought-leaders in angel and early stage investment each year for an exclusive black-tie celebration. With excellent opportunities for corporate hospitality, we invite you to join in and celebrate the year’s most prominent successes in the risk capital market.
Beginning with a welcome reception, guests enjoy a VIP gala dinner followed by an international presenter, announcing the winners of the World Business Angels Investment Forum Excellence Awards every year in the first night of its annual Congress in Istanbul.
THE BEST GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH EAST EUROPE SUPPORTING ENTREPRENEURSHIP 2016 Republic of Kosovo
Kosovo is the biggest reformer in South East Europe in terms of helping startups, according to the World Bank’s Doing Business Report Index. Kosovo has jumped to 13th place in the world in the start-up category, moving up from 47th place in just one year. It has relaxed the bureaucratic procedures, simplified its tax system, and has one of the lowest tax rates in Europe, with a 10% income tax and 0% tax on dividends.
THE BEST ANGEL INVESTOR OF THE WORLD 2016 Peter Cowley, Super Angel, UK
’Over the last 7 years, I have invested in over 55 companies, with 5 failures and 5 returning cash to shareholders. Although I am nowhere near having as much cash out as I’ve invested, based on standard VC rules, I am sitting on a 3X value increase, which looks likely to be 4X later in 2017. I have stated publicly that if I get just £1 more back than the total amount I invested, the journey will have been worthwhile because of the satisfaction, enjoyment and learning I derive from the process.’’ Peter Cowley
THE BEST CEOPRENEUR OF THE WORLD 2016 Paul Doany, Chief Executive Officer of Türk Telekom, Turkey
‘’Entrepreneurship is a way of life, whether one is capable of investing or not. It involves a combination of insatiable creativity and a fearless willingness to take risks, but with a balancing wisdom to ensure a realisable reward across the full range of risk activities. Such CEOs are the kind you find on the front line in their company’s battles. I have always encouraged the people working around me to embrace risk. I firmly believe risk-taking will be increasingly important in the future, knowing that companies have to change faster than ever before, which means the paradigm must change.” Paul Doany
THE BEST FINTECH INVESTOR OF THE WORLD 2016 Alastair Lukies, UK Prime Minister’s Business Ambassador for FinTech, UK
‘Alastair Lukies is a UK businessman and entrepreneur best known as a pioneer and champion of the UK’s global FinTech industry. He founded Monitise in 2003, and three years later, the company was recognised as a technology pioneer by the World Economic Forum. In 2007, he led the company’s demerger from Morse and its listing on the LSE’s AIM market. During his time as CEO, Monitise grew to a market cap of $2 billion, employing 1,500 staff on four continents.
THE BEST GOVERNMENT AGENCY OF THE WORLD SUPPORTING CROSS BORDER INVESTMENT ECOSYSTEM 2016 Investment, Support and Promotion Agency, Turkey
The Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency (ISPAT) is tasked with encouraging and supporting investments that are needed for the further economic development of Turkey. It is the first government investment agency in the world to take angel investment and crossborder investments onto its agenda.
The Best Woman Leader in Globally Engaging The Early Stage Investment within The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem of the World 2016 Candace Johnson, President of the European Trade Association for Business Angels (EBAN) Candace Johnson is the co-initiator of SES/ ASTRA and SES Global, the world’s pre-eminent satellite group. She is also the founding president of Europe Online Investments S.A., the world’s first internet-based online service and satellite broadband network and founder of Loral Cyberstar-Teleport Europe, Europe’s first independent private trans-border satellite communications network. Ms Johnson is also founding president of the Association of Telecommunications and Value-Added Service Providers (VATM), the Association of Private Telecom Operators in Germany, and the Global Telecom Women’s Network (GTWN).
WORLD EXCELLENCE AWARDS The annual World Business Angels Investment Forum, through its World Excellence Awards, celebrates high growth and success in the angel and early-stage investment market – recognising the fastest growing brands and acknowledging the founders, angels, crowdfunders and early-stage venture capital investors behind them. Open to both companies and investors, these awards seek to recognise the year’s most disruptive new market entrants and provide a definitive list of the most exciting ones to watch in the angel and early-stage investment space.
146 nominations from 32 countries This year the jury’s job was a very tough one. WBAF received 146 nominations from 32 countries for 20 categories of the World Excellence Awards, but the international jury decided to award 6 finalists in 6 categories.
Jury members are (in alphabetical order): This year’s jury was chaired by Peter Braun from Switzerland, Board Member of the European Trade Association of Business Angels (EBAN). • Mr Andrew Work, Editor in-chief of the Harbour Times, from Hong Kong • Mr Inderjit Singh, Co-President of the World Entrepreneurship Forum and former Parliament Member of the Republic of Singapore • Mr Michal Ciemenski, Chair of the Polish Business Angels Network, from Poland • Mr Paolo Sironi, Global Thought Leader and Spokesperson for the IBM Watson Financial Services, from Germany
NEW BOARD MEMBERS OF THE WORLD BUSINESS ANGELS INVESTMENT FORUM The World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) is an international organisation that aims to ease access to finance for businesses from start-up to scale-up to exit, with the ultimate goal of generating more jobs and more social justice worldwide. It is committed to collaborating globally to empower world economic development by creating innovative financial instruments for innovators, start-ups, and SMEs. It is developing a global agenda to accomplish this mission with the cooperation of its highly dedicated international board members.
Chairman: Baybars Altuntas, World Business Angels Investment Forum • Abdul Malik Al Jaber, Chair, the Middle East Trade Association for Business Angels & EARLY-STAGE Investment Market Players (MBAN), Dubai • Abdulaziz N. Al-Khalifa, CEO, Qatar Development Bank, Qatar • Charles Sidman, Managing Partner and Member, ECS Capital Partners and Angels, USA • Dr Hashim S. Hussein, CEO, United Nations Industrial Development Organization - Investment & Technology Promotion Office (UNIDO-ITPO), Bahrain • Harry Tomi Davies, Chair, the African Trade Association for Business Angels & EARLY-STAGE Investment Market Players (ABAN), Nigeria • Inderjit Singh, Co-President, the World Entrepreneurship Forum (WEnF), Singapore • Peter Cowley, UK Angel Investor of the Year 2014 & 2015, Chair of Cambridge Angels, UK
HEADLINE SPONSOR OF WBAF 2017: London Stock Exchange Group ELITE is a two year programme for high-growth, ambitious companies designed to provide their CEOs and senior management with access and support from blue chip advisors and investors, as well as a bespoke management course delivered by various business schools across Europe. The London Stock Exchange Group launched ELITE because entrepreneurs often find that that their passion and ideas are enough to launch them a business, but accessing on-going growth finance from institutional investors, private equity funds or venture capital is much harder. ELITE facilitates company access to a full range of funding options, increases company profile and visibility, promotes relationships and opportunities with potential investors, and supports management best practice and entrepreneurship. Enjoy a short interview with the CEO of Elite Programme – London Stock Exchange Group
How many companies have joined the programme? We have welcomed more than 400 companies to the ELITE programme as well as over 150 financial advisers and professional bodies. In addition, the programme now also boasts more than 100 institutional investors including private equity firms as we all as specialist debt investors. The 400 companies come from 23 European countries, the programme having been rolled out across Europe in 2015. The companies have a combined revenue of more than EUR 33bn,come from 33 sectors and employ more than 140,000 employees. This is now a very serious and impressive pan-European programme.
Why did LSEG launch this programme across Europe? High growth SMEs are the major source of new, high quality jobs. For the EU economy to grow we need to ensure these types of companies are nurtured and supported as fully as possible. We want to create a community for Europe’s most ambitious high growth businesses. We have brought together over advisors and investors, including leading accountancy and legal firms; business angels, VCs and private equity houses; institutional investors; PR firms; banks; brokers, as well as the major trade and investment bodies.
How do you select the participants? Do they have to pay to be part of ELITE? We look for high quality, highly ambitious businesses. This can include an established successful family run business as well as a high growth, high tech next generation company. All applicants are selected following detailed discussions with the ELITE team. There is a financial commitment from the companies participating to cover the cost of running the programme - €10,000 per year.
How have companies performed since joining ELITE? The results have been truly impressive: • 45 Companies have completed a deal with a Private Equity firm • 15 Companies publicly announced an intention to IPO • 21 Companies have issued bonds, raising EUR 410m • 120 M&A / JV deals completed by ELITE comapnies
WORLD EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2018 19 FEBRUARY 2018 Istanbul