Preparation for the eleventh edition of Investment Night began in early September. When we as a committee met for the first time at the beginning of the academic year and had to look for a topic, all kinds of ideas immediately came up regarding ESG. However, we felt that there was so much talk about this topic at this time that there was a fear that this would become just another story. That’s when we started focusing more on other topics that we, as up-and-coming finance professionals, had little to no information about in our education. This actually led us directly to Venture Capital! A very dynamic world that is hardly highlighted in our education and the news institutions. Therefore, this symposium was the ideal evening to learn more about the world of Venture Capital.
In short, Venture Capital is a form of financing in which investors put money into start-ups or growing companies with high growth potential. These investors, also known as venture capitalists, provide capital in exchange for a stake in the company. The goal is to help the company grow, increasing the value of the shares and eventually allowing the investors to sell their investment with a profit. Venture Capital is often used by companies within innovative sectors such as technology.
However, of course, an event like this depends on its speakers. Our intention was to illuminate the world of Venture Capital from 3 sides. Of course from experts who are Venture Capitalists themselves but also from the side of a company that receives a capital injection from the Venture Capital world. Finally, we looked for an expert who stands above both parties from a larger institution or the party providing capital to the Venture Capitalist.
Through our network, we quickly arrived at ECFG, a Venture Capital firm based in Eindhoven. The investment director Leo van Schijndel was eager to share his expertise and share his years of experience. ECFG is right in the middle of the brainport region which means it invests a lot in promising business-to-business sectors such as (high-tech) manufacturing, agrotech and ICT.
The second Venture Capitalist was Erwin Saasen who spoke from his experience at ABN-AMRO ventures. He himself is now working for a company that has had an injection from Venture Capital so was able to give a fresh and clear view on the subject from both levels.
From the perspective of a company that received an injection from Venture Capital, Qurein Biewenga came to speak about his experience at Lightyear, the solar car manufacturer. He was also able to speak from two perspectives because he went the opposite way and is now fund manager at PhotonDelta where he invests in companies engaged in innovation in the semiconductor industry.
The last speaker was already a familiar one from this event: Hans Grönloh. He is a partner at KPMG and came to speak from a more controlling role. With a wealth of experience, he was able to provide more interpretation in how to look at the world of Venture Capital.
The evening itself was led by our chairman Johan Doesburg, who led the evening with humor and put fire to the feet of our speakers. He ensured that the conversation never stopped and all facets were highlighted.
The event began with a brief introduction of what Venture Capital actually is and how the process works from start to finish. Then the evening was shaped by various statements and questions from the audience. One of these questions was whether the people within the Venture Capital world should be seen as “sharks” or in other words as people who are only interested in money and do not care if a company really benefits from it. This was firmly denied by our experts who claimed that they always have the best interests of the companies at heart and also only invest if they actually believe in the product. This last part came back throughout the evening in the discussion and could be seen as the motto of the experts: only invest in something you believe in!
As chairman, I would like to thank the mentioned experts and the day-chairman for their participation. I would also like to thank my fellow committee members Bart Schellekens, Bas Verhagen, Emanuel Willemsen, Martijn Mols, Vincent Metz, Rogier Muller and Isa Brangers for their unconditional commitment to making this great event happen.
