Since 2008 it has been particularly difficult to raise money from and to VC funds. VC’s have had issues to raise more capital; it has also caused issues to fund companies that are already in their portfolio. At the same time capital efficiency has increased, that is startups can start with smaller initial capital. Many governments and local stakeholders also want to invest in building better startup ecosystems locally and want to participate in funding or attracting investors to operate locally.
Crowd funding and ‘open market places’ are emerging. There are also more local business angel networks, and for example governments have created tax benefits to attract more people to invest in startups. But the issue persists, how to get these to work together. Many startups prominently target the US market, when it has offered the best funding opportunities and exit market. At the same time emerging markets could offer easier routes to generate revenue and lead to organic growth.
The funding market has many issues, opportunities and new models. The conference has a top-level group of industry experts to talk about funding from several different angels.
Speakers:
Ajit Jaokar , Chairman – Founder, Futuretext and Feynlabs, Author
Krishna Visvanathan - Partner, DFJ Esprit
Jouko Ahvenainen – Founder and Chairman, Grow VC Group
Kevin McManus – Head of Creative and Digital at Liverpool Vision and Director of ACME, Liverpool Region Development Agency
Gary Stewart – Executive director of Wayra Spain
Rahim Adatia – Director, Mobile and Presentation Platform at PayPal
Artturi Tarjanne – Partner, Nexit Ventures
Pekka Sivonen – Head of AppCampus
Lionel Slusney – Founder, Loft Finance and Board Member, European Crowdfunding Network
The discussion looks for answers, for example, to the following questions:
How do we see the future of VC funds?
Do we have hype in the trend of incubators and local startup funding?
How can we find models that different kind of investors could better work together?
What kind of companies will make big success stories in mobile business during the next 2 years?
The Soho Loft Capital Creation Events, Forum Oxford, mobile education program of University of Oxford, and Webinos, a European cross-platform service industry and research project, are promotional partners for the conference. More information at http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/
