FAQ

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

On this page we answer the most frequently asked questions about Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg, financing, funding, events and documents.

The BACB

The Business Angel Club (BAC) was founded in 1999 as an initiative of the Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) in cooperation with interested persons from the Berlin economy.

On November 11, 2004, our club was constituted as an association with 25 founding members. Since its foundation – both the “Business Angels Club” initiative and the association – Investitionsbank Berlin has supported and accompanied us through close cooperation and financial contributions.

Renaming to Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. in 2006: In the middle of the year, initial talks began with the Brandenburg Economic Development Board (now Brandenburg Economic Development Board), which also led to close cooperation.

A business angel is an experienced entrepreneur or top manager who supports prospective entrepreneurs with financial means and practical experience.

A business angel is a person who holds shares in other companies. In return, the Business Angel provides the founders with advice and assistance and also makes his own network and experience available to them.

The Business Angels Club supports entrepreneurial action in order to actively shape a constantly renewing society worth living in with attractive jobs, products and services. The Business Angels Club and its members act as honorary mentors for innovative, growth-oriented companies with a scalable business concept.

They are committed to open, transparent dealings with the companies presented in the club and network. Fair dealings at eye level with entrepreneurs and founders are just as much a part of the club’s self-image as equal and joint action by the individual club members in looking after founders.

As part of the mentorship and for the duration of the support projects, the Business Angels are active free of charge, do not initiate commission business, do not recruit founders / entrepreneurs as clients or clients and do not act as agents for clients.

There are three membership classes:

Business Angel: Private individuals or holding companies with majority shareholdings by members -> 46

Business Angel Company: company members and holding companies, with minority interests by the members ->11

Business Angel Partner: Gfinancial institutions or investment companies with a volume of more than € 20 million -> 3

The BACB Beteiligungsgesellschaft is an investment vehicle founded and managed by Business Angels of the Berlin Club. The business activity consists predominantly or exclusively in acquiring, holding and selling shares in other, independent companies belonging to different sectors.

Financing

When financing with investors, good preparation and the time factor are essential circumstances that startups should include. The entire process of financing including preparation can quickly take a year. But also the period between contacting the final investor and paying in the capital is rarely less than three to six months. Especially institutional investors such as venture capital companies, but also regularly investing business angels, follow a more or less rigid investment process. Typical steps in the financing process are:

  • First examination of the submitted documents by the core team (Pitch Deck, OnePager)
  • business valuation
  • Letter of Intent / Term Sheet (definition of the key data of the investment)/li>
  • Due Diligence Audit
  • Negotiation of the participation

As a rule, business angels participate with equity investments for which they receive company shares.

Loans are rare and are granted primarily to bridge difficult business situations or to finance goods in advance.

It usually takes between three and six months for you to receive the money from the Business Angels.

The assessment of the startup is often a pain point and super individual, especially for startups without significant sales. The business angel is usually the earliest investor and bears the greatest risk. He places his confidence in the business before other venture capitalists do.

A typical business angel investment starts at 10.000€ and is less frequent at 50.000€. Our median is €25,000 per investment.

Super Angels invest between 100.000€ and 500.000€ per startup, as a rule they only start at seed rounds comparable with venture capitalists.

By selling its shares, which have since increased in value significantly, the Business Angel wants to
should be able to make a profit. The period until the sale is five to ten years.

Public Funding

The Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. is funded by IBB. Other Partners are:

-Berliner Volksbank
-Berliner Sparkasse
-Inter.net
-BeBerlin

There are a variety of funding opportunities, a few of which are listed below:

-Berlin Startup Stipendium
-Exist
-ProFIT Frühphasenprogramm
-Coachingbonus der IBB

Under the following link you will find everything summarized about the Exist scholarship.

Purpose of the scholarship: Promotion of innovative, technology-related startups through coaching, qualification and scholarships, especially in the context of ICT, digitalization and internationalization. For this, the founding teams (usually two to four people) are provided with the necessary technical infrastructure, for example in the form of PC workstations or laboratories for six to twelve months.

You can apply to colleges / universities in Berlin

For example at the HTW under the following link.

You will find a detailed overview and the application form under the following link.

Documents

For the opportunity to pitch and get capital in exchange for shares in front of around 30-40 angels. This event takes place monthly and the business concept is presented in 5 minutes. apply now

The online form and a pitch deck, which can be attached, are usually sufficient. Click here to get to the form.

Alle Anforderungen findet ihr in dieser Präsentation: BACBProzess

We generally only support startups in early phases. In startup jargon, the phase is referred to as the PreSeed phase.

Events

No, only invited business angels and network partners can participate. Potential business angels are given the opportunity to attend our event twice before deciding whether to become part of Business Angels Club Berlin.

The PitchingDay is our main event at which 5 startups have the opportunity to present their business concepts to our business angels.

For smaller pitching rounds:

-5 Min Pitch
-5 Min Q&A
-Get together

For larger rounds:

-5 Min Pitch
-World Coffee Procedure
-Get together

Follow-up appointments take place afterwards, in which interested business angels and startups examine in more detail.

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