CORDIS Archive
This page has been archived. It will no longer be updated.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
IRC staff from these candidate countries need to be aware how the world of venture capital operates if they are to offer their clients insights on seeking and talking to investors. Staff from 11 IRCs in nine separate candidate countries, and a number of their client companies, met together in Germany last November to develop their knowledge in the field. Hosted by IRC Hesse/Rhineland-Palatinate, the participants in the meeting attended an information session covering general venture capital issues. Here they received presentations from venture-capital fund managers, and from intermediary organisations offering services to companies seeking investors. The following day, they attended the fifth Frankfurt Venture Capital Congress, where the IRC network was presented as a 'gateway' to profitable investment in the central and eastern European countries. Understanding venture capital"The timing was just right for these events," says Gudrun Rumpf from the IRC-IRE Central Unit, who organised them, "as investments being made now are investments in the future European Union. IRCs from central and eastern Europe are increasingly receiving demands from their client companies looking for advice on investment issues, and the cluster events will help them in this growing side to their work. As a consequence, they have expressed a need for training in this field, and this meeting - and the contacts made there - have provided them with a valuable opportunity to exchange experiences. All of the participants reported that the meetings were very useful for their work." "We increasingly need this knowledge, and the event has opened our eyes to the venture capital environment," according to Gundega Lapina from IRC Latvia, one of the participants. "We are now better able to give our clients a realistic view of their investment possibilities." Vratny has provided assistance to two clients, which attended the Frankfurt Congress with him, who are now trying to find investors. One, from the automotive sector, is now in discussions with the financing arm of a major international car manufacturer. "Having met 'real venture capitalists', as well as benefiting from the exchanges of information, our client now feels much better equipped to discuss financing issues on an international platform," he says. Developing contactsWhilst IRCs will not become involved in writing business plans for clients, for example, they may offer advice on whether a client's business plan is likely to convince investors. In fact, much of the work to be done by IRCs in this field is - as in other areas of their work - in suggesting potential partners, either service providers or investors, to their clients. One source open to IRCs is the Gate2 Growth(1) database of investors and service providers. Following their experiences at the Frankfurt Venture Capital Congress - which was not focused on central and eastern European countries - in May this year, several IRCs sent client companies to the fourth Venture Capital Forum in Chalkidiki, Greece, focused on south-eastern Europe. IRC Slovakia and IRC Bulgaria both represented client companies at this recent event. A client of IRC Romania, a small marine technologies company, met four different Greek venture capitalists - contacts it is now following up. "Our client's view was that Romanian experts need to develop a greater understanding of how western venture capitalists think," Speranta Rasan of IRC Romania emphasises. For Raimund Bröchler, of IRC Hesse/ Rhineland-Palatinate, who hosted the event last November, "it was one of the best networking events I have been involved in, and it has inspired me to do further business with the central and eastern European countries." One of many ideas he is considering is to invite IRCs from these countries to meet with his local business angels club in Hesse. (1) Gate2Growth, supported by the EU's Sixth Research Framework Programme, comprises a range of initiatives to encourage investment in technology-focused businesses. See 'Risk and reward - changing the climate', edition 5/02.Contacts
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
INVESTMENT IN INNOVATION
ntrepreneurs and small companies from central and eastern Europe face a range of difficulties in obtaining venture capital to launch or expand their businesses. Venture capital investors are less well established than in current EU Member States, but more significantly many entrepreneurs are uncertain how to go about obtaining investment. Assisting small companies and entrepreneurs which aim to exploit their technologies is the role of Innovation Relay Centres (IRCs), but as Stefan Vratny of IRC Slovakia points out, "often our clients need help in finding finance before a technology transfer is possible".