Female Founders at the European Angel Investment Summit (2/2)
Welcome to the second Episode, brought to you from the European Angel Investment Summit 2022.
The European Business Angel Network (EBAN) is an organization that brings together business angels from all over Europe. The aim of the organization is to provide a forum for business angels to share best practices and learn from each other. EBAN also offers training for new business angels who want to get involved in startup investing. The organization recently held one of its two annual conferences in Brussels, bringing together business angel investors from all over the continent. This year’s conference was significant, as it provided a much-needed opportunity for startup founders to connect with potential investors. With the COVID-19 pandemic causing economic uncertainty, many startups are struggling to secure funding.
The conference offered a unique opportunity for startups to pitch their businesses to a large group of potential investors. The conference was a valuable opportunity for startup founders to meet with potential investors and get their businesses off the ground.
300 seed-stage startups applied to be at this event of which 25 have been chosen. The event took place in Brussels.
We focused on startups from Germany and made short interviews with them on-site. If you want one or more of these startups back for a full interview, let us know in the comments or via email. The event was a great opportunity to network and exchange ideas with other startup founders, business angels, and VC investors from all across Europe.
We also got insights into the early-stage startup scene across the continent and had the chance to listen to some great startup pitches. All in all, it was a very inspiring event that definitely left us wanting more. The next event will take place in Athens, Greece in April 2023. You can apply for the event via the EBAN website:
Publication Schedule Startuprad.io
We are in the hot fall for Startuprad.io, where we publish two episodes each week, until Christmas. We will finish the year with our annual fintech review on December 25th and be back for you on January 19th, 2022.
Video Podcast
Audio Podcast
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Chapters / Time Codes in the Video and Audio Podcast and Guest Links
00:00 Introduction
00:17 Welcome by Joe
01:06 Desire Dosch https://www.linkedin.com/in/desiree-dosch/ — Guide Care https://www.guidecare.de/ helps relatives take care of their care-dependent relatives. They are enabling the way for caretakers to get advice in the metaverse.
06:34 Hannah Helmke https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-helmke/ — right. based on science https://www.right-basedonscience.de/en/right-based-on-science/ they are a climate tech, calculating the impact of a business entity (e.g. company) in degrees celsius, so one can compare it to the 1.5 °C climate goal. They help investors to invest greener and managers to steer their companies towards a climate-neutral future.
13:30 Katja Filippenko https://www.linkedin.com/in/katja-filippenko-1ba4421b/ — Saatgutkonfetti https://www.saatgutkonfetti.de/ is a sustainable startup from Germany, replacing confetti with seeds.
22:15 Nikolaus D. Bayer https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikolausbayer/ German Business Angel of the Year 2020 adds his impressions of the event and recommendations for fundraising. We have an extensive interview with him, just search in your preferred podcast app or on Youtube for it.
26:18 Harald Holzer https://www.linkedin.com/in/harald-holzer/ worked for established companies like Vodafone and Allianz, he has been active as entrepreneur founding 5 startups and now helps at Technical University Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt) https://www.tu-darmstadt.de/wissenstransfer/gruendungszentrum_highest/index.de.jsp new startups founded there to get off the ground. One of his main jobs is to connect startups with business angels and venture capitalists. One of the most visible successful companies is Wingcopter, with which we also have an extensive interview. Look in your podcast app or on YouTube.
Topics discussed in this episode:
health tech, MedTech, home care, care-dependent, care at home, startup, startups, business angel, seed investments, pre-seed investments, series a investment, Germany, Switzerland, metaverse, remote advice, meta verse, care in meta verse, science, climate change, female boss, female entrepreneurs, female founders, startup founders, founded by women, women in tech, climate change, green startup, data, big data, fossil fuels, investments, industry, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, data model, climate model, green startup, green startups, climate tech startups, climate tech, climate change, Paris goals
Automated Transcript
Intro
[0:00] Music.
Welcome By Joe
[0:28] Off the European Angel investment Summit from Brussels this time we added all female entrepreneurs that we could get our hands on from GSA
and
we hope you enjoyed the episode it will be rounded up by the business Angel of the Year 2020 Nicholas paella has been one of our guests and her had also who speaks for
highest which is part of the Technical University damage that also very important breeding ground for great startups
in the right mind area of course this is again brought to you by invest in Essen.
Desire Dosch — Guide Care
[1:14] Hello and welcome everybody this is Joe again having another guest here at the business Angel investment Summit in Brussels hey who are you.
[1:24] Thanks so much for having me my name is Desiree Dosch I’m a co-founder of the health Tech startup guide care which is based in Germany and offers guy care consultancy to and people in need of care and their relatives.
One question because you’re talking about relatives taking care of relatives here how did you get to this idea.
So the market is very simple there is a huge amount of people who are in need of care or actually served at home so they are in need of,
care and eighty percent of them are actually covered by relative so these are dollars for example Sons but also wives or husbands and that has,
care of the relatives make sure they had get the services they need.
So that goes from doctor appointments to conversations with endurance has to make sure that they get also the financial,
poets that they are actually in the right to receive,
that goes into changing the apartment for example to make it wheelchair friendly and so on and so forth so we guide as a.
Between that whole network and the market is huge because at the people in need of care Zone in Germany is over four million which is actually the size of inheritance.
[2:44] Berlin and 80% of them are treated by the,
she’s not at 3.3 million people so there is an incredible Market that needs to be solved and so.
The industry didn’t manage to make the market accessible,
47 it’s still very very traditional and conservative and it’s very much people based which is still for us very important but we bring another angle to it,
and the digital one so we support all the 24/7 is an online community so that was the start we have now so we provide access to useful information tips but also to have an exchange among.
People with like-minded people with similar needs and we even go one step further we started with the first trial and metaphors and because we believe that this.
Virtual reality will be the future especially for those people who have issues leaving home and we actually have.
I’m getting there and also getting step by step into this digital digital transformation that’s happening in about.
How do I have to match and.
[3:52] Is it is it a digital Community is a digital platform and where does your part of.
[4:03] You could imagine everything from like a real virtual assistant to somebody who helped you over the.
Unmanaged Forum where are you.
So you actually positioned everywhere kind of so we have we have still the traditional the traditional setup we have experts.
Personal advice and consultations which is for us really important because we still believe that the personal connection is super.
But we on the pennant and make more efficient which this digitalization so we have the accessibility online of course will video conferences but also a digital community,
people can get together in a safe environment this is a closed community where they can exchange among each other but they can also ask questions to real advisors and Consultants to get real-time answers,
I’m so there is no virtual person answering those are about answering the questions,
personal personal assistants it’s just on a digital platform and then we go a step further and we do also guided phone calls for example we.
[5:09] Who is enjoying this meetings about but as I said moving that one into the matter Burrs so we truly believe that this transition is needed because there are still many people who are not,
fully have not the digital Affinity yet,
so that’s why we need to guide them also the patients but also our clients through the digital process and this is what we really want to do because we don’t want to fall out of one group which is nowadays in need of care but maybe not yet.
Doesn’t have yet to digital affinity and you here at the investment Summit to look for.
What stage are you looking for so we found that probably seven months ago we already have a revenue model so we generate already Revenue with specific existing model we now want to move into the further digital development.
Stage that’s why we are here at the even investment coming to look for investor helping us and financing the digital the next digital step we are looking for a convertible loan at the moment,
and yeah looking for investors on the market to support the strategically with networks but also of course also.
[6:22] Funding it’s now up convertible we plant the seed funding next year yes okay sectors.
[6:29] Thank you very much for your time it was a pleasure talking to you thank you very much as well.
Hannah Helmke — Right. Based On Science
[6:43] Hello and welcome everybody this is Joe again from the European this is Angel Summit in Brussels I do have hunger he with me hi hi.
Can you introduce yourself yes I’m Hannah I’m co-founder and managing director of right based on science and right as a climate Tech found it in 2016 and.
And we make the climate impact of an economic entity transparent in a degree celsius figure so you can compare it to the one point five degree goal of the Paris climate agreement.
[7:14] That is quite a comprehensive pitch and,
let us first start at the very beginning with what did he do before and how did you come to a climate check Green Tech.
So originally I wanted to become the sport psychologist because I really like performance so I find it fascinating that you can.
Perform so much more if you are mentally fit.
[7:41] But then I found that I am not up for it so I didn’t want to become a.
Which you need to be in order to be a sports psychologist,
and then I studied international business because my dad is a business person and somehow it sticks with you and then I came across a research paper from HSBC,
which said that 75% of all fossil fuels that are already priced into the market are unburnable in a well below 2 degree world.
That is a that is a huge financial bubble and since then I’ve been really eager to provide transparency on whether your Investments are,
into companies that,
counting on those emissions that don’t belong in a well below 2 degree world anymore and this is how I yeah this is how I came to founding a climate Tech which provides transparency on the climate,
for our audiences not familiar with the matter the two degrees Celsius is the global warming in the future.
[8:50] Yes exactly so the the goal of the Paris climate agreement is that global warming should be stalled at well below 2 degrees in an ideal case at one point five degrees and that refers to the end of the century.
Okay and how do you guys fit in there.
So what we do is we provide transparency to companies or pot Financial portfolio managers or real estate owners,
what the climate impact is so we for example tell a CEO of an industrial company that his company is currently on a 3.5.
[9:29] And then this person know where the company stands and can take actions in order to reduce the climate impact to 1.5 degrees,
and since we make this so comprehensive instead of abstract tons of CO2 or Omission intensities it becomes it becomes manageable,
and this is how we hope to eventually accelerate and mobilize people for this transition and my question would now be how do you do this.
Trims of the company like how do you tell they’re on a path to one degree five degrees.
And secondly how does your model work to put it like in the broader picture how this company contributes.
So what we do is we take the carbon footprint of a company and put it in relation to the value that the company creates so that’s the gross value added which is the equivalent of the global GDP.
And then we project this emission intensity to the Future,
and then we calculate the climate performance by comparing this emission intensity over time to a one point five degree aligned emission reduction.
[10:41] And this performance were scaling up to the world calculating if the world had the same performance as the company how many emissions would occur and what would be the resulting degrees of global warming at the end of the century,
that makes your climate impact comparable to the one point five degree goal including sector specific components,
so that’s the model behind it it’s pretty complex there are 30 people working on this model however the output is really simple and I think the special thing is that it’s comparable,
so if you have a three point five degree company you can compare it to a two-degree building to a four degree Financial portfolio to I don’t know two point five degree and Sovereign bond for example,
and that makes it really easy for everyone to engage in that transition what kind of data does be customer of yours.
[11:35] To come up with because I guess you don’t look at the companies I do yeah rule of thumb it’s something like this what kind of data goes in from the.
So the data that we need to calculate the climate impact is the emission data according to greenhouse gas protocol so scope one two and three scope one emissions are the direct admission data of the company,
and scope two and three emission data are indirect emission data so from the value chain or from,
the portrays of electricity and then we need the financial performance of the company which is ebitda and personal.
[12:12] And then we just need the sector of the company because the calculations are sector-specific and the revenues that’s it and if then the company wants to steer to what’s one point five degree alignment of course we need to quantify the.
The strategy of the Gold’s on the emission intensity in the future but that’s all we need and in the first half.
2020 2 we had listeners in more than 100 countries.
[12:42] For our audience are you do you need to stick with companies from Germany from Europe or can you basically do this with global companies all over the world,
we can do this with global companies all over the world because they’re all they’re all they all need to contribute to 145 degrees,
Paris once 1.5 degree and this is why every company every single building and every country,
needs to allow you to Target and also from modeling data perspective we can work with national companies but also with International companies smaller larger ones,
Katja Filippenko — Saatgutkonfetti
[13:38] hello and welcome everybody and here in the afternoon of the second day of a.
[13:46] Investment for Brussels and if you have cut your hero hey can you introduce yourself to our audience.
Yes gladly I’m really happy to be here I’m the CEO of seed confetti it’s a sustainable startup from Germany.
We are creating impact by celebrating with nature.
And yes I’m 35 years old I was formerly a lawyer and then I just started to founding companies and I love to help,
see other companies grow so I have kind of a double role on the one hand I’m looking for funding for my startup and on the other hand I love to support other impact setups,
from Germany from all around the world and to connect the dots and let the whole ecosystem grow can you tell us.
[14:33] Does so sick confetti it’s not only products you’d confetti is actually a social Enterprise from Germany we invest a lot of.
Time money energy everything and soul into supporting biodiversity.
So this is confetti confetti that is biodegradable when you throw it it dissolves and beautiful wild plants grow out of it it has 23 different seeds.
It has wild plants wild grasses and white herbes and this makes the whole ecosystem very resilient because it nourishes the soil and also the insects that live there.
We also have some species that it is supporting that a threatened from Extinction we educate a lot about it so every time when a human being is celebrating,
Carnival or wedding or something outdoor see then they celebrated with seat capacity and support by diversity.
[15:32] And did I get it right it’s mainly used for can we say applications outside.
So the applications outside are called a celebration but there is also another celebration that is taking place for example on fairs or on events so for example for the to the phones we created this beautiful giveaway,
that that has been given out to people,
in order to make aware of the you green deal and the bikers were biking for the you current deal during the to the phones,
and that’s how we provide this opportunity for companies for institutions for almost everyone to spread around their message,
and a beautiful way or they put their logo and they let the other celebrate so it’s very thoughtful in a way of Nature and also of the people.
We should tell for our audio audience that you held a package in the camera approximately this size of your hand with a few seats and great yes exactly exactly sorry now I’m holding my.
My giveaway my very compostable giveaway.
It contains the seed confetti and on top of it we have the logo of the European Commission.
[16:53] We have the to the course emblem and it says nature wins bike for EU green deal,
and this way you know when the European commission ordered is from us like around 50,000 packages which we deliver it to,
to Denmark when they two different started you know every person could celebrate the beginning of the Tour de France so this was great.
And where do you guys actually get your seats from so we get our seats from local farmers in Germany and those seeds,
are really good to grow in Europe so we before we enter into a new European country will make sure that,
the biodiversity is actually supported when people bring out the seats are so yes it’s from let’s say smaller we try to support you know the regenerative,
farming Concepts in Germany and as soon as we start building other fabrics and production sites we will be supporting the local farmers there so they can become regenerative in a way as well.
[18:06] That sounds good and you’re here at this event to looks and funding I would assume priest.
So we’re I’m here as well well not only to connect with incredibly great entrepreneurs also there are a lot of them this year focusing on sustainability so this is very inspiring and we start building Partnerships,
but the second thing is yes truly we are looking for funding right now this will be series a we already had a seed round,
we have a beautiful like great super supportive supportive business Angel and now we want to scale up the production because,
you know wrote for the last three years we have been producing seed confetti for every event for every know for every giveaway it was done manually,
so it’s still quite expensive and in order to make it accessible and available to everyone.
Because you know why use usual confetti that is polluting the environment.
[19:08] Yeah we should just replace this with a biodegradable beautiful Paul’s like impact positive see confetti.
And in order to do that we need money in order to build the production side to automate all the processes so yes we are happy to find impact driven investors,
who want to support the ecosystem and who want to.
Yes who want to redesign the way the products are made to inspire others as well to invest into nature so can you tell us the last closing words a little bit about the impact you’re having I can.
Fight is a little bit huh so for example throughout the last three years we substituted 1.5 tons.
Kg of a really bad confetti no like the foil plastic confetti we substituted.
[20:06] Millions of packages of.
Of really bad giveaways you know that’s are throwing out there and building up even more piles of garbage and instead we’re actually with argue away people were,
growing plants and supporting biodiversity and on the other hand we also every time a package is sold were actually investing into,
um into Fields into regenerative Fields where you have really a diverse mixture mixture of plants.
So it was about.
[20:46] I think was about 200 100 Missy I have to translate it in English sorry.
[20:55] So it was like just imagine for example we invested into into a field as big as a football field,
of plants and we continued on doing this and every time for example another package is sold every package every color stands for
emission so we when we sell the red confetti we support medicines of Katya,
I swear when we sell the blue confetti we support the rescue missions on the scene.
So a note for example the the colorful confetti the diverse one that’s how we support initiatives on inclusion and diversity,
our team this is the other thing we invest a lot into our team we have a very inclusive T we have people,
working there who wouldn’t get a new job job on the market because they have disabilities and,
we have just wonderful power house we called the PowerHouse you know they give us purpose every day to come back to work and to grow a business because we want to make sure that so many more people are able to create this beautiful.
Impact driven sustainable companies great thank you very much thank you so much.
Nikolaus D. Bayer — German Business Angel Of The Year 2020
[22:20] I am Nicholas fire from the Rhine mine area in Germany and I’m an angel investor focusing on B2B software startups and also on impact.
And being here at the European Angel investment Summit in Brussels is very inspiring for me to see new trends on a.
Levels for instance the climate change.
Also we discussed adding more or increasing the the participation of female people in both startups and venture capital.
And also what did surprise me a little bit is that space is coming up here,
I never had this on my mind before but definitely need to look into this as an investor,
what’s going on here and I’m particularly happy that looking at at my home area Tessie is that we already have quite a lot of activity in this,
area like looking for instance at darmstadt where we have the Technical University and also the European Space Agency being there.
Sam if we’re lucky we’re well positioned and does it make sense for.
This event is there different between.
[23:44] Probably it’s more or less the same nevertheless coming here and getting an international view is of high value to see.
[23:56] To get some feedback from abroad to see that we are in line with that and as I said before and never focused on space before until today so you’re looking for some space startups in the future let’s see.
I will have a look.
[24:14] For our startup audience doesn’t make sense for early-stage startup Founders talking about precede to attend such events here.
[24:25] Yes I think so for two reasons you better understand how investors think and what they are.
[24:31] We had discussions today on valuations for instance keeping the current crisis in mind and and also to me.
[24:41] Because if you go out and talk to people you made need people that you don’t just meet if you’re sitting at home.
Stay in Germany yes like investors who never thought about like investors you never thought about that but yeah definitely I mean there’s.
If your local to Germany or to any other country you see just your German or Dutch or whatever investors but here you notice it’s even more people and they are also not shy going International so that can add value.
[25:17] And for the founders that are planning to come here what would you be your recommendation to approach an investor what should they do they should do their homework look at the attendance list.
[25:31] People are investing in and how should a perch.
[25:37] I’m the problem here with these two days they’re fully packed and probably you cannot do all the meetings but I probably is very wise to leave,
I some some first impression with the investor and an opening a channel to follow up later on and maybe already do a very.
[25:56] Ten minutes is sufficient and then follow up later on so bottom line is don’t torture them with like an 80 slide set in very first meeting right now.
Yes absolutely great thank you very much it was a pleasure talking to you you’re welcome.
Harald Holzer — Highest — Tu Darmstadt
[26:21] Hello and welcome everybody this is Joe startuprad.io,
and I would like to welcome Harald here today with me hey can you introduce yourself to our audience yes I’m a vault also the managing director of high Innovation and startups and a Technical University of darmstadt.
[26:42] And can you tell us a little bit about,
pickled University because our audience is very International and they likely don’t know it we are Technical University with 3,000 scientists and about 25,000 students,
and I of our focus is to become high-tech or,
companies out of the video University and get a lot of the huge number of successful startups.
Can you tell a little bit about in what area.
You’re active my understanding is that it’s very leaky deep Tech as well as stuff like cybersecurity and stuff like that.
[27:26] Three areas this is information and intelligence it’s artificial intelligence its data science and so on,
the other area is metals and materials we are very strong in materials and physical and so on.
And the other huge areas environment and energy bill for a lot of startups in the the energy and the environment area and a lot of.
He is in this in science.
I see you assist the startups there and can you tell us a little bit about what you do with the startups.
[28:05] We support.
Founders from the first idea to the idea I could set up a startup we are something like a mentor like a consult.
[28:19] We are yes consult on mentoring from the ID from the business idea through the business case from the business I case to a scalable business case.
And we like to connect our startup teams with potential Partners from economy from.
[28:38] From the business Angel side of from The Venture side.
And we know about 4045 percent of our audience is looking for investment Target so if their investors they could reach out to you,
yes we are very interested to bring our startup teams together with potential investors wheel I would like to bring them together with business angels with venture capitalist and so on,
and next week we have an event where 100 startups are pitching before in front of 100 potential investors and our.
Yes our Target is to bring them together to.
To look for funding for our startups and for our investors to bring them in contact with yeah interesting startups and my understanding is you’ve done this before you’ve been an entrepreneur.
You have to experience that’s why this is your drop myself yes.
I found it five startups my myself three years ago I made the exit of my last.
And my target is to bring the experience I have with my own startups to the young generation of Founders and.
[29:56] Can you tell us just a tiny bit about how you found the event for whom it would be useful.
[30:06] I like this event I like the spirit I like the the optimism although we have,
horrible world around us and I also like these startups which orientated to solve problems.
They always see the chance in the future and we have a lot of information about the Angels about The Angel Network and how we bring,
ideas inventors startups together with the with the business angels and and other investors.
Do you have one or two already successful startup examples that you could mention here.
[30:56] We have a lot of successful startups with the base of Technical University of darmstadt our youngest successful startup is Wing copter.
Copters the drawing company in the mobility area.
Drones are like a helicopter or like a plane and the wind copters very successful founded a lot of money.
And we have minimum five the employers which which I know in my head which becomes successful in the next year’s.
Everybody who would like to learn more about wind copter we link our interview yes with the CEO down here all right thank you very much with pleasure talking to you thank you very much.
[31:38] Music.
