Online workshop: Venture Capital and Private Equity in the Asia Pacific Region

(reposted from an email)

INVITATION AND CALL FOR PAPERS

 

Online workshop

 

Venture Capital and Private Equity in the Asia Pacific Region

 

Tues 16 November 

 

9.30am -11am Hong Kong time.

 

Organised by the Asian Finance Association and hosted by the School of Banking and Finance, UNSW.

The Asian Finance Association is pleased to invite interested academics and practitioners to submit papers and/or participate in an online workshop on “Venture Capital and Private Equity in the Asia Pacific Region”

The Asian region has an increasing role in the global venture capital and private equity market. However, there has been little research on the role/impact of venture capital and private equity in the Asia Pacific region. The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers and market participants to discuss recent research on venture capital and private equity and its broader implications for practice and policy.

We invite authors to submit high-quality research papers on any aspect of venture capital and private equity with a focus on Asia Pacific markets.

Interested authors should e-mail their paper in Acrobat PDF format to:

Contact:       Jo-Ann Suchard
Email:         j.suchard@unsw.edu.au
no later than October 19, 2010.


Cost of participation :
Asian Finance Association members : Free
Non members : US$85 for non members to join the Asian Finance Association and includes subscription to the two journals of the Association : International Review of Finance and Pacific Basin Finance Journal.

Angel Investing: Some observations and resources

Having helped run the Angel Forum for a few years (link: AF's Nov 4th workshop on "Exit Strategies for Investors & Entrepreneurs"), I got to see and hear some interesting trends in the angel and VC world. Some were controversial at the time, but are becoming more 'normal' today. The general trend is that VC's are attracting too much capital and have moved up-market to look for deals that have higher pre-money valuation AND high growth potential. On the other hand, angels are happier with smaller investments with moderate-to-high growth potential. The troubles began when VC's moved up-market before angel groups and super-angels stepped in to fill the "valley of death." The valley of death is the gap between seed funding (by friends, fools and family, plus some angels) to get to prototype, and the resources required to get to market growth. Angels used to fund up to market entry (not necessarily growth), and VC's would fund market growth, only after early customers had proven the market exists. Filling this gap included a combination of angels forming groups to pool their knowledge, contacts and cash, plus quicker exits by targeting exit by acquisition, not IPO. This is perhaps good news for angels and entrepreneurs. VC's on the other hand are being challenged to demonstrate massive returns on large investments (sorry guys, it's easier for small companies to grow, than big ones). For the rest of us .. well, maybe it's time to find an angel to invest along side with, or wait for an IPO to fuel later stage growth.

For further reading, here are a few sources:

• Super Angels article at Knowledge@ASB from yesterday
• Basil Peter's (2009) "Early Exits" (email us if you'd like a copy)
• Tom McKaskill's (2009) "Invest to Exit" 
• Bob Wiltbank's (2005) "Investment Practices and Outcomes of Informal Venture Investors"
• Kauffman Foundation's (2004) "Guidebook to Developing the Right Angel Organization for Your Community"

So what does it all mean? Well, funny you should ask.

In Sydney (and elsewhere) more and more people are getting together to launch seed funds. Each has their own particular theme. For example:

• http://www.startmate.com.au/ - Launched in 2010, StartMate wants to help technically-focused founders get started
• http://www.sydneyangels.net.au/ - Launched in 2008, capital for innovative, high-growth, early stage businesses based in Sydney
• Try Angelsoft for more, too