Webinar#3: Where to get money - investors, grants or crowdfunding?

When you have a great idea, funding is nearly always the sticking point. How can you raise money to get it started? If you have a tech-based idea, you may have an easier time attracting attention from venture capitalists or angel investors, but as more and more startups work that angle, finding the right investor is harder than ever. So how could you get your idea off the ground?

In our webinar, we will talk about 3 different ways to fund your idea - be it attracting an angel investor, crowdfunging or grants.
First, who exactly is an angel and where do they invest? When should your startup choose an investor? An experienced angel investor and a founder of a VC Fund, Riivo Anton, who has invested in many different early-stage companies will give you an introduction to angel investing and answer your most burning questions about this form of funding.

Second, if you have a groundbreaking idea and you’re ready to campaign for it, crowdfunding is the way to go - a number of startups have found their first success thanks to platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo that helped them raise investments as well as visibility and reach. Alternative financing for businesses across Europe has increased considerably in recent years, becoming an important source of finance, but it can still be slightly confusing which one to choose and whether it's really for you.

We will introduce some tools available to help you navigate in this world.

Third, grants offer the opportunity for your organisation to bring in new funding that does not need to be paid back! It is important to remember, however, that grants are competitive. A lot of time and preparation are required to find grant opportunities, plan a project, and then develop a proposal. An expert in grants from Civitta will introduce various European grants available and answer all of your questions on how to get one.

For registrations please click HERE.

Riivo Anton is an Estonian entrepreneur and early-stage investor. Being a co-founder and management board member of the largest independent management consulting group in the CEE region (www.civitta.com) he has almost 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur. Before founding an early-stage VC fund United Angels VC (www.unitedangels.vc) in late 2017, he was focusing on angel investments. His angel portfolio focused on B2B startups in ICT, some of which include Veriff, Monese and Xolo (previously known as LeapIn). As an angel he was also a co-founder and board member of Estonian Business Angels Network (www.estban.ee) and founding investor of Startup Wise Guys Accelerator (www.startupwiseguys.com). Throughout his career as a tech investor he has made around 20 investments as an angel and fund manager and more than 60 investments as an investment committee member at Startup Wise Guys.3

Ramona Dremljuga works as a Project Manager for international innovation initiatives coordinated by Civitta Estonia, the largest business consultancy originating from CEE. With a background in digital economy, new media and sociology, she carries 5+ years of experience from running international projects with a kick for innovation. She has been involved in a project that trained business angels and managed a project that helped startups gain access to alternative financing sources. Ramona joins the webinar to introduce tools and materials made available by Altfinator, a Horizon2020 project with the ambition of improving SMEs access to finance across Europe.

Kadri Adrat is leading the team of enterprise financing in Civitta, helping companies to receive funding on European and national level. There are many successful proposals in her portfolio and she has worked with both, early-stage companies and already established corporations. Kadri has worked as a consultant for more than 5 years, during which has collaborated with private as well as public sector on various levels. Prior entering the consultancy field, she worked in a national intermediate body for European structural funds and had the possibility to gain experience also from the provider’s side.

Kirsten Virks is active in the Startup Team in Civitta Estonia. Besides managing the NGI TETRA project, she and the team in Civitta are organising the pieces of training on Investment Readiness for the NGI beneficiaries. These trainings include fundraising trainings for earlier stage companies and follow-up investment and public funding opportunities for the teams who are planning to raise a follow-up investment or apply for grants.
She also the coordinator of Estonia’s biggest business idea competition/accelerator "Ajujaht" (Brain Hunt). Ajujaht has boosted the success of several internationally well-known and successful startups such as Bolt (formerly known as Taxify), Click & Grow, SprayPrinter and many others. Besides all that, Kirsten has been involved in other startup ecosystem development projects and written successful funding applications for startups in Estonia and beyond. In addition to working with startups, she also has an extensive experience in social media management. She has been active as a social media team leader for Estonia's biggest democracy festival Opinion Festival and worked as a social media editor for Estonia's biggest media group.

Welcome and introduction to TETRA project
Kirsten Virks, TETRA Project Coordinator 2 mins

Who are angel investors and where to find them?
Riivo Anton, United Angels VC 15 mins

Grants - funding that you don't need to pay back.
Kadri Adrat, Civitta 15 mins

Crowdfunding and other alternative financing options. How to choose?
Ramona Dremljuga, Altfinator Project Coordinator 15 mins

Q&A session 15 mins

Wrap-up and upcoming TETRA events
Kirsten Virks, TETRA Project Coordinator 2 mins