This week brought a fresh push from Brussels to reshape how business angels operate across the EU. Under its Startup and Scaleup Strategy, the European Commission unveiled five concrete steps aimed at dismantling barriers to early-stage investment, fortifying the connections between angel networks, and enabling investors to deploy capital more freely across member states.

Five pillars of the Commission's angel investment agenda

  • EU Innovation Platform: A unified hub where innovators meet investors, offering business angels and network operators direct access to investment-ready ventures backed by EU resources.
  • Crowdfunding: A dedicated forum pairing angel investors with crowdfunding platforms, potentially leading to structured support for angel-driven capital raises and deals spanning multiple countries.
  • Cross-border co-investment: A systematic review of existing angel ecosystems and national co-investment vehicles, conducted with InvestEU Advisory to spot weaknesses and expansion possibilities.
  • European Angel Accreditation: A standardised certification process for angel investors that member states could leverage to extend tax breaks and co-investment access beyond their borders.
  • European Angel Investor Network: A new arm of the European Innovation Council's Trusted Investor Network tailored for business angels, granting them sight of early-stage opportunities from the EIC pipeline.

EBAN pushes for a more comprehensive European co-investment framework

The European Business Angels Network (EBAN), which brings together business angels, seed investors and other early-stage backers, has expressed qualified support for the Commission's direction while signalling that the measures do not go far enough. Established in 1999 with European Commission backing, EBAN encompasses more than 130 member bodies and dedicates itself to facilitating investment flows across borders and shaping EU policy on seed-stage financing.

While EBAN endorses the Commission's wider agenda, including the proposed EU Inc initiative, it contends that Europe requires tighter integration between technology commercialisation, angel capital, venture funding and later-stage investment channels.

At the heart of EBAN's position sits a call for a unified European co-investment mechanism. Such a scheme, the network argues, would lower exposure for angel investors, draw in fresh capital reserves and enable startups with genuine growth prospects to secure backing irrespective of their home country. EBAN additionally advocates for rolling out national co-investment schemes to territories currently lacking them, paired with a unified verification standard that would allow angels to gain recognition once and operate freely across the continent. The organisation emphasises that these tools should layer onto existing national and regional investor ecosystems rather than duplicate them, with explicit delivery timelines and concrete metrics for both entrepreneurs and capital providers.

We believe the Commission is moving in a very positive direction. EBAN is keen to help turn this ambition into practical results. We can take a leading role in connecting the angel-investment community to this wider effort.

Jesper Jarlbaek, President of EBAN

Source: Tech.eu