The Board of the Estonian Business Angels Network has recently elected Kristjan Raude as President of EstBAN. For the first time, Vice President was elected, who’s main role is to support and substitute the president, this role will be covered by Lev Dolgatsjov.
Raude together with Dolgatsjov and board will be committed to strengthen the results achieved so far and together with the EstBAN team will work to make the organisation the most relevant voice of angel investing.
Kristjan Raude, the new President of the association, has been a board member of EstBAN since 2020 and joined EstBAN in 2019. Lev Dolgatsjov, the new Vice President of the association, has been a board member of EstBAN since 2020 and joined EstBAN in 2018. We asked them what were their greatest achievements as an investors during last years.
Kristjan shared his thoughts, “I think my greatest achievements are still to come. Angel investing is a long-term game, betting on a team with their vision of a different future. If everything is done right, time is our best friend. I am happy that I met many new interesting investors and very potential startup teams which I mentored and invested in. The learning curve has been steep and probably it will stay like this for a while. The best lesson as an angel investor has been leading four successful investment rounds and building my portfolio up to 20+ companies.”
“I have a drive for angel investing because I live on the edge of the future of society, business, and technology. I believe that being an angel investor in Estonia is the best occupation you can have in the world. It’s fun, exciting, and rewarding if done right. We are building something amazing together.”
Kristjan Raude
Dolgatsjov is doing a lot of mentoring work on a daily basis, not only with startups, that he invested, in but also with others. He believes that the biggest achievement for him is a chance to help many great startups and founders as a mentor and that’s what he will continue to do.
Raude added that every 89th person of the Estonian working population was involved with startups and EstBAN angels have a very important role in the ecosystem, investing in early-stage companies. The startups need not only money but access to angels’ professional network and expertise. “If we look at collected data, then it shows that last year during covid time EstBAN angels invested all together €11,2M, including €7,5M of angel and crowdfunding investments. I don’t know any local early-stage fund which invests similar sums per year as angels do altogether” highlighted new EstBAN President.
Role of Vice-President is new for EstBAN and to the question, how will Lev divide responsibilities with Kristjan, Lev believes that it will be the case when 1+1=3. “It’s a big honor for me to be the first ever EstBAN Vice-President and it will be a pleasure to work alongside Kristjan in this role. I think responsibilities will be shared rather than divided, we’ll see how it works out and adjust if needed. It should not be hard as we share the same vision and values,” said Dolgatsjov.
What are the next big things to focus and contribute to investor-startup relations and to the community?
Kristjan emphasizes that angels need to spot good business opportunities and founders need to find angels with professional expertise who will help them build a successful business. The focus should be set mostly on raising the awareness and benefits of angel investing. “We have a structure in place to put together an EstBAN angels syndicate for up to €500k while making the whole process as easy as possible.”
Raude is confident that for angels EstBAN is the place where they feel safe to learn, eager to start co-investing together with experienced angels, and most importantly enjoying the journey. “Many don’t know that the EstBANs syndicate’s minimum ticket sum is 5000€ which makes it very accessible to a lot of investors. Last year Estonia had seven meaningful exits. It’s good to see that employees and founders from these and other Estonian top startups are joining EstBAN to get access to the deal flow, co-invest with other angels while giving back to the community.”
Connect with EstBAN team and read more about us on www.estban.ee
