Startup Balkans

Western Balkans Angel Academy

Western Balkans Angel Academy is a program dedicated to future angel investors. Swiss EP partnered with Efino to boost up the development of the local startup investment landscape.

Western Balkans Angel Academy is a program dedicated to future angel investors. Swiss EP partnered with Efino to boost the development of the local startup investment landscapes.

One of the missing links in all Western Balkans ecosystems is developed angel investor networks. Since Swiss EP has been in the filed for the last five years, we have spotted this gap and decided to do something about it.

The step we decided to take is a small but important one. We have teamed up with Efino and started Western Balkans Angel Academy. Our goal is to educate an initial group of Western Balkan’s business angels and help them make the difference in our local entrepreneurial landscapes.

What is Western Balkans Angel Academy?

Western Balkans Angel Academy is a program dedicated to future angel investors. Swiss EP partnered with Efino (Switzerland), a company that is specialized in creating and performing similar programs. Efino’s mission is to help startups bridge the financing gaps by accompanying, educating, enlightening, coaching, and enabling the angel investors, entrepreneurs, startup board members, and ecosystem players.

Western Balkans ecosystems, or to be more specific, entrepreneurial ecosystems of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Serbia, are all in need of early-stage startup capital. We believe that the Angel Academy will bring visible benefits to the local startup scene quite fast.

Therefore, the goal of the Angel Academy is to:

  • Educate interested individuals on early-stage investing, life investment cycle, and management of portfolios,
  • Build a common language and working model between entrepreneurs and investors to fill in the equality gap,
  • Engage the educated angels in their journey to build a portfolio of startups.

Who can participate in the Western Balkans Angel Academy?

The first Western Balkans Angel Academy is a pilot program. For that reason, we choose the test group among our partner organizations and long term collaborators in all Western Balkan countries and invite them to participate.

We want to test the program and see how people react to the newly acquired knowledge. After the first generation of Angel investors come out of the academy, we will evaluate the program and decide on the next steps.

How does the program look like?

The program of the academy is including:

  • 8 webinars, where participants will deep dive into the secrets of the world of investments
  • 3 hands-on learning sessions, with a learning-by-doing approach and different exercises for a more comprehensive learning process.
  • 3 online sessions dedicated only to the Due Diligence process and a detailed walk-through of the process.

These activities are related to specific parts of the investment process, such as investment strategy, due diligence, company valuation, deals, and similar. Even if they are organized online, they are all interactive and require a high engagement level from participants.

When are the start and end dates of the Western Balkans Angel Academy?

Western Balkans Angel Academy already started. The first webinar was organized on September 10th. Bi-weekly webinars will last till November 17th, and the closing session is scheduled for the end of November.

Or, in other words, in just three months, we will have fully educated local business angels. They will be ready to support our early-stage startups on their journey to success.

Ivana Sabo