Sri Lanka to host 2017 Asian Business Angels Forum
View(s):Asia’s largest premier angel investor gathering and conference for emerging and growing businesses, ‘Asian Business Angels Forum’ (ABAF) to kick off in Sri Lanka next year. Prajeeth Balasubramaniam, founder member of the Lankan Angel Network (LAN), told the Business Times that the 2017 ABAF which is to be held in Sri Lanka would significantly impact on the country’s emerging business ecosystem since many angel investors whowould attend the forum from all over the world, will have direct access to local entrepreneurs. “This sort of direct access is what differentiates LAN and ABAF from other organisations because they offer a personal contact that is not there at large investment funds that solely focus on revenue generation and do not understand the needs of small and medium businesses,” he added.
He also mentioned that last year’s ABAF held in New Zealand saw over 125 delegates offering direct access to angel investment for emerging businesses with the majority of attendees representing multiple angel networks across Australasia, USA, China and Malaysia. In fact, LAN as Sri Lanka’s only accredited ABAF member also facilitated the attendance of six delegates representing the country. ABAF’s primary function is to grow early stage investments in Asia-Pacific by business angels. As such, some of the issues they advocate are sharing of best practices in angel investing among angel investment networks regionally and globally in collaboration with US and European global networks. It also encourages and facilitates cross-border investments among angel networks.
The forum was previously held in Singapore, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Hong Kong and Queenstown -New Zealand. Further to proposals made to the ABAF committee by host delegations, the Korea Business Angel Association was selected to host ABAF 2016 in Seoul and LAN to host ABAF 2017 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The forum will bring together angel investors from across the world and not limit to the Asian region only. This will be a good opportunity for Sri Lanka to create new links and lasting relationships with fellow angels and also improve the visibility of the LAN and the scope of angel investing in Sri Lanka, improving deal flow and access to angel funds through cross border angel investing, increase the level of engagement among angel investors in the region and beyond with Sri Lankan angel investors and learn and share best practices in angel investing from around the globe.
(RM)