8 September 2010

New European academy for angels and entrepreneurs

A new business investment academy launching this month could be good news for European entrepreneurs and eventually the wider economy. It hopes to increase business angel activity in the world’s emerging informal investment markets still lagging well behind the US. After four years of research and pilot programmes the Ready for Equity! Academy’s first European international investor programmes will be announced at a reception in Hungary on 21st September.

The idea behind the RfE! Academy™ is to provide an all-embracing training package for business angels and entrepreneurs to stimulate deal-flow and introduce common practice to facilitate cross-boarder investments. There’s a lot of work to do; for example
in the UK alone informal investors currently only satisfy 10 per cent of the potential demand.

The academy is the result of four years of research and development led by Finance South East (FSE). 16 training modules for business angels and nine modules for entrepreneurs have been tested and validated in 11 European countries with more than
680 participants. The academy’s training sessions will be run by business angel networks, experienced SME support services and regional development agencies.

Sally Goodsell, CEO of Finance South East said:
“RfE! training has already proved its impact on the development of business angel communities in Europe. In establishing common practice and enabling a frequent exchange of ideas and expertise we aim to stimulate an increased amount of investment
activity all over Europe. The potential of the new academy is huge.”

The RfE! Academy™ will be officially launched on the 21st September 2010 at the Chamber of Commerce of GyÅ‘r-Moson-Sopron County in GyÅ‘r, Hungary.

Further information on the academy and its training programmes can be found at
www.readyforequity.eu or by contacting Florian Schumacher at Finance South East on
+441276 607307.

-Ends-

Notes to editors
About Ready for Equity!™
The Ready for Equity! project was launched in October 2006 to identify and address the key issues impeding business angel activity across the European business community.

This four year project, largely funded by the European Commission’s Leonardo Da Vinci programme, developed and tested two training curricula and training material.

The first set of training sessions is targeted at business angels in order to improve the capacity of
informal investors. The second is aimed at preparing entrepreneurs to present their business
opportunity to private investors.
Led by Finance South East, Ready for Equity! Brought together partners involved in business angel activity from Belgium, Malta, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland and Lithuania.

For more information please contact
Flo Schumacher
Finance South East Limited
T: 0044 (0) 1276 607307
M: 0044 (0) 7917 154 257
florian.schumacher@financesoutheast.com