Finnvera recognised as the ‘Best Early Stage Fund of the Year’ by European business angels

Finnvera’s Venture Capital Investments received the ‘Best Early Stage Fund of the Year’ award at the Annual Congress of EBAN – The European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds and other Early Stage Market Players.

Finnvera was recognised for its active and, on the European scale, wide-ranging early stage investments and co-investments with business angels. EBAN held its Annual Congress in Vienna on 13 and 14 May.

Finnish business angels have received positive attention within EBAN in recent years: Ari Korhonen was recognised as the Business Angel of the Year in 2009 and the Finnish Business Angels Network FiBAN was selected as the Business Angel Network of the Year in 2012.  

EBAN consists of over a hundred business angel networks and funds in the EU Member States, elsewhere in Europe, and in Russia and Turkey. Finnvera has been a member of EBAN since 2008, after it had launched the InvestorExtra service targeted at private investors.

On the basis of a survey conducted among EBAN members in 2012, the network was estimated to comprise about 26,000 business angels. Measured by the number of investments, Finnish business angels were the fourth most active in Europe, after their counterparts in the United Kingdom, Spain and France.

Finnvera continues to invest actively in start-up enterprises. Direct investments will continue until the end of 2017.

Additional information:
Leo Houtsonen, Finnvera’s Venture Capital Investments, tel. +358 400 379 252