About
LINK-Caribbean helps start-up businesses raise money in the Caribbean, improving access to much needed capital.
LINK-Caribbean has two primary objectives:
- to enable entrepreneurs to raise capital from private investors, principally business angel investors,
- to develop a pan-Caribbean early-stage investment community, with a focus on angel investors in the region, institutional investors and diaspora investors via the creation of a Caribbean Business Angel Network (CBAN).
In the Caribbean early-stage and growth stage businesses play a critical role in sustainable economic and social development. They foster growth, innovation and prosperity and are flexible and quick to respond to market changes, such as evolving consumer tastes. This is an important asset in a globalized economy where consumers are ever more aware and informed, and increasingly in search of more customized goods and services.
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What is Angel Investing?
Angel Investing is the practice of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) investing their personal time, money and expertise (including sharing their professional networks) into early stage businesses in which they have no family connection, with the aim of getting these businesses to grow and realizing a financial return on their investment over the long-term
Angel investing is a form of private equity investing that often takes place in the early stages of a company’s development. However it can also occur in more mature companies.
Angel Investors also invest their intellectual capital into a business while often times providing access to influential networks. These are core components of angel investing and can significantly improve a company’s probability of success. A business angel typically aims to take a more active role in the business than a traditional passive private investor, hoping to use his/her knowledge and experience, to help the business succeed. In exchange for their financial and intellectual capital, angels often require equity in the company and are therefore committed to the business and its success. Angel Investors will also want an exit to realize a return on their investment and will generally shy away from making an investment if an exit opportunity is seen as highly unlikely.
The motivation of angel investors is another thing that separates them from other type of private equity investors such as Venture Capitalists and PE firms. Angels are more interested than just a financial return; they want to get involved with innovative companies, they enjoy the process of building companies, and they have a desire to support entrepreneurs. Angels are also looking to give back to local economies by investing in young people and companies, where they believe they can add value by passing on their own experience and expertise.
It is critical for entrepreneurs to grasp that angel investors are looking to invest in companies that are beyond the idea stage, they are looking for evidence of customer engagement. Angels will look more kindly on companies that already have, or are close to having actual revenues, and likely to look les kindly on companies that are only looking to fund a prototype. As such, while there are angels who will fund companies at the very early stages of development, most angels want companies to already or close to making actual revenue before they consider making an investment.
Find out more about angel investing by downloading infoDev’s angel investor guide from the link below
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Partners
Canada supports the development priorities that the region places on economic growth and security. Sharing the Caribbean’s vision of healthy and prosperous families, strong economies that provide meaningful employment, and self-sufficient people, Canada’s development program is supporting efforts that: build a more integrated, regional economy; address the security risks that crime and natural disasters pose to prosperity; and advance the rule of law and strengthen legal institutions.
infoDev, a Global Partnership Program in the World Bank Group, has the strategic goal of promoting the growth of innovative enterprises and dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystems in the developing world. Currently, it is implementing the Entrepreneurship Program for Innovation in the Caribbean (EPIC), which aims to support the development of an enabling ecosystem in the Caribbean that fosters high-growth enterprises that have a multiplier effect across the region. EPIC is a 7-year program funded by the Government of Canada. Over the past two years, EPIC’s Access to Finance component has explored strategies for unlocking private investment capital, primarily focusing on supporting the launch and development of organized business angel investing.
Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) is a regional export development and trade and investment promotion organisation of the Forum of Caribbean States (CARIFORUM) currently executing the Regional Private Sector Programme (RPSDP) funded by the European Union under the 10th European Development Fund (EDF). Caribbean Export’s mission is to increase the competitiveness of the Caribbean countries by providing export development and investment promotion services through effective programme execution and strategic partnerships.
The European Union has 139 Delegations throughout the world. Within the Caribbean the role of the Delegations is to actively promote the values and policies of the European Union in an open and equal partnership with the Governments and people of the region. In addition they also programme development aid and trade assistance focusing on poverty alleviation. Emphasis is also placed on the promotion of Democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law as well as the smooth and gradual integration of the countries into the world economy.