Esade BAN invests more than €3 million in 22 new projects during the 2019-20 academic year

Esade BAN, the Esade Alumni business angel network, invested €3,239,500 in the 2019-20 academic year in 22 new projects, up 38% over the previous year. Business angels invested an average of around €30,000 per project in said period, with an average investment per project of €150,000.

This network of private investors is a meeting point where investors seeking investment opportunities can find entrepreneurs with innovative projects that need funding in their early stages. Esade BAN was founded in 2006 and consists of 230 private investors, most of whom are business angels, family offices and venture capital representatives, and corporate and investment groups. In the last 14 years Esade BAN has invested more than €37 million in 236 companies. The network is characterised by its focus on entrepreneurs and its on-going training for investors, plus the possibility of investing as a group with a lead investor in charge of coordinating an Esade BAN group of investors.

Impact of the pandemic

Despite the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus, 400 projects were submitted to Esade BAN. The 75 projects retained were presented at the 14 investment forums (growth forum, seed forum, family office forum and health forum), including 5 on-line forums during the pandemic.

“The entrepreneurial ecosystem has changed considerably in the last year and, due to the coronavirus, we have seen an upward trend in projects related to healthcare”, said the Esade BAN director, Fernando Zallo. “The mission of the Esade Alumni business angel network is to offer its network of investors the best opportunities. One example of this is the presentation of high-growth start-ups such as Cabify, Red Points, Kantox, Glovo, Wallapop and Exoticca in its investment forums in recent years” explained Zallo.

Start-ups and outstanding projects

Esade Alumni BAN’s most outstanding operation in the 2019-20 year was Unison, a new model of music copyright management which, in Spain, has opened up the Spanish and European market to the management of digital copyright by private operators. This start-up garnered €1 million from 39 Esade BAN investors.

Other noteworthy projects include Berdac, an intelligent medication dispenser which has raised €120,000, and General Drones, which designs and manufactures drones for emergency and life-saving teams and has raised €350,000 from Esade BAN investors.

Other ventures presented at Esade BAN investment forums include Finutive, an entirely digital administration platform for companies and the self-employed; Internxt, a de-centralised cloud for data storage; and Insylo, an IoT solution to optimise the food supply chain in farms. Projects presented at previous investment forums, such as Agroptima and Pridatect, have participated in follow-on rounds and raised new funds from Esade BAN investors.