Hemos creado nuestra gestora Active Venture Partners!

Después de muchos años de preparaciones hemos realizado nuestro próximo proyecto emprendedor y gran sueño…

La creación de nuestra propia gestora de entidades de capital riesgo. (también explica, por que no he tenido tiempo en los últimos 10 meses en dedicarme escribir en este blog

La nueva gestora se llama Active Venture Partners (ACTIVE) y nace con el objetivo de dinamizar nuevos fondos para apoyar a emprendedores con proyectos tecnológicos y visión internacional. La gestora tiene su sede en Barcelona y desarrolla su actividad en el ámbito europeo.

ACTIVE nace con un capital de 300.000 euros y tiene como socio único a Active Capital Partners S.L. (ACP) que funciona como nuestra empresa holding desde el año 2002.  Seguimos los 4 socios de siempre; Philipp Schroeder, Ricard Söderberg, nuestro prisidente , mentor, advisor y gran amigo Alfredo Bassal Riera y yo.

El consejo de ACTIVE está compuesto por los tres socios ejecutivos, Philipp Schroeder, Ricard Söderberg y yo mismo. La vicepresidencia la ocupa Joaquín Molins–Gil y la presidencia Alfredo Bassal Riera.

La nueva sociedad gestora estará bajo la supervisión de la CNMV (Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores).

El primer fondo que ACTIVE gestionará es la Sociedad de Capital Riesgo Molins Capital Inversión, que ya estamos gestionando desde el año 2004. Este primer fondo cuenta con un capital comprometido de 20 millones de euros y participa actualmente en compañías tecnológicas como la firma de comercio electrónico BuyVip, la empresa de software Polymita Technologies, la compañía de aplicaciones móviles Golden Gekko, la firma experta en gestión y medición de la experiencia de usuario Xperience Consulting o la empresa de servicios radiológicos a distancia Telemedicine Clinic. El fondo también cuenta entre sus participadas con empresas no tecnológicas como la cadena de vinotecas Vinus Brindis.

Nuestro primer proyecto con Active Venture Partners sera el lanzamiento de nuestro segundo fondo ACTIVE II que está previsto sea operativo a partir de finales de 2009. Con el nuevo fondo queremos realizar inversiones en empresas europeas de base tecnológica: Software, Internet, Telecomunicaciones y Cleantech, con especial atención al mercado español, y que se encuentren en fase de arranque o expansión con un modelo de negocio que ya genere ingresos. Las inversiones previstas oscilarán entre los €500.000 y los €4.000.000 por proyecto.

Ya ha salido un articulo en Expansion.

Barcelona Entrepreneurship City Show Case

On Friday the 21. of November we organize the 1. Barcelona Entrepreneurship City Event.
150 Entreprenuers with a passion for Barcelona will come together and participate in the following program:

“Barcelona meets its Entrepreneurs”
Entrepreneurial Institutions, Organisations, Associations, Incubators & Universities discuss how to improve the Entrepreneurial environment of Barcelona…
-Juan Carlos Angeles – President of EO Spain
-Andre Varny – President Eurecan Community
-Jesus Monleon – Co-Founder of Seed Rocket
-Yolanda Perez – Director of Barcelona Activa
-Sergi Mora – Manager of the ACC1Ó Investment Forum
-Ester Palomar – Manager of Eurecan International
-Julian Vinué – Manager of La Salle Entrepreneurship Center
-Ricard Soderberg – Founder & Managing Partner of Active Capital Partners (Moderator)

“Prepare your company for difficult Times”
-Philipp Schroeder – Founder & Managing Partner of Active Capital Partners
-Christian Siegele – former Partner of 3i Venture Capital and International Business Angel

“Venturepreneurs’ Talk ”
-Albert Armengol – Founder of eConoczo & Venturepreneur of Genoom, Festuc, Bloguzz, Linqia, …
-Didac Lee – Founder of IntercomGI & Venturepreneur of Spamina, Atraczion and Scubastore
-Jan Andresen – Founder of Elkware, CEO of Weblin & Venturepreneur of cellity, JobLeads, mediaclipping, Kinkaa, High-Def, creative-weblogging, sofatronic, Fishlabs, …
-Christopher Pommerening – Founder & Managing Partner of Active Capital Partners (Moderator)

If you want to become a member of the Barcelona Entrepreneurs Meta Community please go to:

Barcelona Entrepreneurship City

Venturepreneurs´Lounge

For our next Venturepreneurs´Summit in Barcelona on the 22nd – 23rd of November we have created an event that we call the Venturepreneurs Lounge:

The Venturepreneurs’ Lounge is one of the activities of the Summit, aimed towards new entrepreneurs whose ideas or projects are in the seed stage. Five entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to present their new businesses at the Venturepreneurs’ Lounge during the Summit on Sunday the 23rd of November and will also receive valuable feedback from some of Europe’s greatest Venturepreneurs.

It is not just about seed investment, it is also about who is investing in your new business. If you wish to be considered for one of the five entrepreneurial slots, you just have to send your project presentation in English to us at team@acpvc.com prior to the 8th of November.

One week before the summit we will let you know whether you have been selected to present your project to the Venturepreneurs.

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”
Seneca

Global Entrepreneurship Week

I am very happy to announce that the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) España will take place around the globe in the week of the 17th to the 23rd of November 2008. The founders of GEW are the “Make your Mark” and the “Kaufmann” Foundation. One of the prominent promoters of the week in Europe is the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

End of last year I helped the GEW to be introduced to Spain. The initial contact was made through EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organization) and the first meetings were hosted and managed by IESE Business School. Besides EO and IESE important entrepreneurial organisations and institutions are already represented such as, First Tuesday, Barcelona Activa, ACC1Ó CIDEM | COPCA, Active Capital Partners, Eurecan, Training Games Ltd., Caixa Capital Risc, EOI Escuela de Negocios, Intereconomía, Junior Achievement España, Sistema madri+d and Madrid Emprende. Every partner is committed to joining forces in order to organize events, conferences, learning forums and special sessions during the Global Entrepreneurship Week. Everybody has a common goal: To foster entrepreneurship!

From Venturepreneur to Venturepreneur

Last weekend we gathered for two days in Barcelona for the first Venturepreneurs Summit. Ineke Ibbeken, Philipp Schroeder, Ricard Soderberg, Blair MacLaren and I have invited a group of fantastic Venturepreneurs, in order to structure a pan-European network of serial entrepreneurs with a passion for seed investments.

It was a very energizing experience to learn from each other, discuss multiple topics and share great experiences with Albert Armengol (founder of eConozco), Carlos Muñoz (founder of Vueling), Daniel Wild (co-founder of Getmobile), Didac Lee (founder of Spamina), Dusan Stojanovic (co-founder of Alternativa), Esther Dyson (ED Venture), Jakob Tolleryd (founder of Carambol), Jan Andresen (co-founder of Elkware), Karl Funke (founder of Multitest), Oliver Beste (co-founder of myToys), Petra Becker (founder of Thesaurus) and Rodolfo Carpintier (founder of DAD).

As special guests we invited the founders of Genoom, GeoMe, Bubok, Gild International and GoCars. They presented their business concepts and we had a very lively feedback session with a lot of questions, constructive input and a lot of fun.

We would like to say THANK YOU to all participants and we are looking forward to the 2. Venturepreneurs Summit…

The Venturepreneurship Concept

I had the idea for the Venturepreneurship Concept in March 2007. It is the merge of my two passions for venture capital and entrepreneurship:

Venture Capitalist & Entrepreneur within the same person = Venturepreneur

Venturepreneurs are Serial Entrepreneurs that act as Venture Capitalists. They have own entrepreneurial and venture capital experience and like to invest in new ventures in the seed stage. They typically invest between €25.000 and €250.000 in co-investment with other venturepreneurs. The difference to a traditional business angel is that a business angel is not necessarily an entrepreneur or a sector specialist.

Over the last years it became quite clear that there exist already quite a large number of Venturepreneurs in Europe and the rest of the world. Most of the seed rounds of successful start ups have been financed by venturepreneurs like Morten Lund, Johan Stael von Holstein, Martin Varsavsky, Stefan Glänzer, Rodolfo Carpintier, Jan Andresen, Robin Klein, Daniel Wild…

I strongly believe that successful seed investments are done, when a group of sector specific venturepreneurs join together, in order to provide venture funding, know how and know who to start ups.

We have started to create the Venturepreneurs Network, in order to bring together Venturepreneurs from different countries and different sectors. The Network is based on a strong set of values such as:

Integrity, Respect, Active Commitment, Trust, Professionalism and Humility…

We believe in the exchange of peer to peer experiences, high quality deal flow, experienced co-investors, valuable sector expertise and business contacts.

Vino Tinto with Morten Lund

During the Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona I meet with Morten in his Hotel and we drank a nice bottle of Spanish red wine. We had a very pleasant and interesting conversation about entrepreneurial values and exchanged some stories about some entrepreneurs in the community with “wrong” business ethics. It is not very often that I come across fellow entrepreneurs that have such a strong value based approach to business like Morten Lund…

Furthermore I was very impressed by his unique way of taking investment decisions. I brought along my business partner Maria Sipka (CEO of Linqia) and we explained Morten the business model and vision of Linqia. He understood the potential of the concept in less than 10 minutes.

In the end I also invited him to the first Venturepreneurs Summit which we will organise in the first half of this year.