Angel investors from 11 countries across the world have formed World Business Angel Association (WBAA), a global association of angel investors that would focus on investing in high growth start ups. The formation of the association was led by the Indian Angel Network (IAN), a network of Indian angel investors, so India is one of the founding members of the association. The association is the first international association of angel group representatives from across the world.
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The association would be a non profit organisation and will be based in Brussels. It will promote innovation and entrepreneurship through the financing of high growth start up companies with the support of angel investors worldwide. The association would enable the angel investors from member countries to invest in start ups in other member countries and hence help the start ups to expand across boundaries, a top functionary of the association said.
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The idea of such an association was mooted by the representatives of global business angel networks, who attended the Business Angels Leaders forum in Portugal in October, 2007. IAN was one of the members to propose the formation of the association. “IAN along with two or three other people led the idea and proposed it. We felt that we have more to gain as angel investing is the most recent in our country,” Saurabh Srivastava, Founder, IAN, told VCCircle.
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WBAA’s current members include Australia, Chile, China, France, India (Founding Member), Italy, Portugal, Spain, United Arab Emirates , United Kingdom and the United States of America.
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According to Srivastava, all the angel groups, so far operate in their own countries unlike the VCs and the private equity people who are global. The idea was to make angel investing also global. "This will enable us to figure out global best practices and apply them locally,” he said.
