Venture Capital/Angel Investment/News/ Blossom launches new $5m angel investment programme The hope is to kickstart an angel investing ecosystem similar to that in Silicon Valley. By Amy Lewin 7 April 2020 Credit: Ophelia Brown, founding partner of Blossom Credit: Ophelia Brown, founding partner of Blossom \Venture Capital Atomico launches third angel programme By Amy Lewin 5 February 2021 Venture Capital/Angel Investment/News/ Blossom launches new $5m angel investment programme The hope is to kickstart an angel investing ecosystem similar to that in Silicon Valley. By Amy Lewin 7 April 2020 One of the reasons why Silicon Valleyâs tech scene is streaks ahead of Europeâs is because there are simply more people whoâve been there, done it before â and are willing to put their time and/or money into starting businesses all over again. With a new $5m angel investment programme, London-based venture capital firm Blossom Capital hopes to do its bit to address that. âIâve been thinking about this for a long time,â says Ophelia Brown, founding partner at Blossom. âHow can we really ignite the angel ecosystem in Europe? Weâve got strong angels â but not at the level of the valley by any means.â Blossomâs angel programme Cultivate will do two main things: invest in people leaving unicorns to start their own thing; and grow an angel network of more experienced unicorn founders and executives. Blossom will stump up the cash â $250,000 per startup â while the angels will ultimately decide which founders receive it. Guillaume Pousaz, founder and chief executive of Checkout.com. Opheliaâs angels Brown is enlisting a troop of 30 angels, all founders or executives from European unicorns, to mentor the early-stage founders on the programme. The line-up includes: Des Traynor, cofounder of Intercom; Guillaume Pousaz, founder and chief executive of Checkout.com; and Shakil Khan, an early investor in Spotify. So far, Brown has chosen 15 angels. âTheyâre a reflection of European unicorns,â she says; they have experience in a range of business models and sectors, are a mix of founders and C-suite executives and are âall pretty youngâ. âItâs more skewed towards male angels; unfortunately thatâs representative of who are the founders and executives of unicorn businesses in Europe,â she adds. The angels will spend 45 minutes every two months with one of the founders, refer new founders to the programme and decide which 20 companies receive capital. Angels have the option to co-invest too. Blossom, meanwhile, will take care of the admin and legal side of the investments. Kickstarting the ecosystem Europeâs angel ecosystem has been slow to take off. In 2018, âŹ7.5bn was invested into European startups by angel investors, according to Atomicoâs State of European Tech report. Founders made up 21% of all angel investments last year â but there are just a handful of âsuper angelsâ, such as TransferWise cofounder Taavet Hinrikus, Atomico partner (and former Spotify chief marketing officer) Sophia Bendz, and Iliad and Station F founder Xavier Niel, who make dozens of investments per year. In part, this is because many of the people best-placed to angel invest still have a day job. “Most of these founders and execs have a day job; they canât do it as a side project.” âThey just donât have the time,â says Brown. âBeing a VC is a job; if youâre taking it seriously, not being opportunistic or just giving money to friends, you have to diligence opportunities, which is incredibly time-consuming. Most of these founders and execs have a day job; they canât do it as a side project. And some just donât have the capital.â There are plenty of European scaleup success stories â but many have not had an exit yet â which means the founders and early employees of those businesses are option-rich, cash-poorer. âThat doesnât mean you donât want these people helping [new] companies,â says Brown. Over in Silicon Valley, itâs more common for startups to hold âsecondaryâ sales â an opportunity for founders, early employees and early investors to sell shares in a company before it goes public, or is acquired. In Europe, itâs far less common â and that doesnât help the angel ecosystem. âIn the US, itâs usually to see secondaries from Series B onwards. In Europe, thereâs a mentality that if you give a founder liquidity, theyâre suddenly going to work less hard.â Thatâs ridiculous, adds Brown: âIf you give them a bit of stability, theyâre probably more motivated, and take more risk.â Learning the ropes With Cultivate, Brown hopes to provide earlier-stage founders with the operational advice these angels have â and give the angels a chance to get to grips with investing, ready for when they do have capital of their own to invest. âSome people donât trust themselves to be really good at it â or just havenât got round to it yet,â says Brown. This isnât Europeâs first angel programme. In 2018, European VC firm Atomico launched its angel programme, giving a dozen angels $100,000 each to invest in two to three startups. It is now on its second iteration of the scheme, which serves both as a way for Atomico to scout out early-stage startups, and to train up a cohort of angel investors, many of whom are founders or startup community organisers. âItâs putting founders and companies on our map earlier than we wouldâve gotten to know them,â Atomico partner Sophia Bendz told Sifted. Brown hopes Cultivate will go further towards growing the angel ecosystem, with its deliberate focus on the talent stemming from Europeâs unicorns. Sheâd also like the news to offer some positivity amid fears that coronavirus will take a serious toll on startup fundraising and new business creation. âWe hope this sends a strong, loud statement to the market: there is good capital that would support you taking the risk.â Want the best of Sifted in your inbox? Our newsletter brings you the latest, greatest stories on startup Europe. Sign up Terms of Use Related Articles Enzo Ventures: a new microfund by Gen Z founders, for Gen Z founders By Tim Smith in Barcelona Click here to read more Why corporate venture building could save the world By Maija Palmer Click here to read more VCs should pay themselves less By Oliver Holle Click here to read more Early-stage VC firm The Fund launches in Europe By Amy Lewin Click here to read more Get the best of Sifted in your inbox By entering your email you agree to Siftedâs Terms of Use Sign up to \Future Proof Siftedâs weekly \Corporate Innovation roundup email By entering your email you agree to Siftedâs Terms of Use Most Read 1 \Deeptech Europe is making faster cars and better batteries than Tesla 2 Member \Startup Life Enter the era of the digital nomad 3 \Deeptech Quantum Motion unveils 9-second silicon qubit 4 Member \Startup Life Meet the fast-growing N26 âmafiaâ: the employees turned entrepreneurs 5 Member \Consumer 12 startups nibbling at Deliveroo that investors are watching closely Join the conversation Subscribe Notify of new follow-up comments new replies to my comments
Enzo Ventures: a new microfund by Gen Z founders, for Gen Z founders By Tim Smith in Barcelona Click here to read more