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Angels Den Sets Up In Singapore

Posted by on 1/04/10 • Categorized as In the News

Angels Den

Angels Den, Europe's largest angel network, currently has some 3,300 angels in its network.

Angels Den, Europe’s largest angel network, has just expanded to Singapore.

Bill Morrow, Angels Den‘s founder and CEO, explains that Singapore’s access to capital from all over Asia is one of the key reasons for starting here. “(We are) already seeing a lot of interest in what we are doing from Chinese angels and from New Zealand … we also met over 30 angels the other day and they are very keen to see filtered deals.”

“They are keener than ever to invest as the banks are paying them 2% and they want 100% … One (even) said he was “desperate” to find deals to invest in.” Angels Den is also looking to partner with people and organizations with dealflow to their events, and bring together the angel community from Europe and Asia.

Angels Den does charge startups S$1499 upfront to pitch, and takes a 5% success fee. Some people disagree with making startups pay to pitch – such as This Week in Startups host and Mahalo CEO and founder Jason Calacanis in this blog post, for example. Bill admits the fee seems expensive but explains that it separates the wheat from the chaff. “It means that we only get serious people pitching… this then encourages the angels to come back again and invest more.” Bill also adds that Angels Den does spend time with entrepreneurs to work on their valuation and business models, as well as training for the actual pitches.

Angels Den will be holding their first event here in March 2010.


Daniel Goh is the founder and chief editor of Young | Upstarts. Daniel has a background in public relations, and is interested in issues in entrepreneurship, small business, marketing, public relations and the online space. He can be reached at daniel [at] youngupstarts [dot] com.

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  • http://blog.dk.sg DK

    I heard about such “scheme” few months back on TWiT when Jason Calacanis was on the show. I can’t believe that they are coming to Singapore too.

    If you need to pay in order to pitch your business plan, then perhaps your business plan is not good enough.

    I’m sure there are other ways to get funding in Singapore. I hope nobody is foolish enough take up this “pay to pitch” scheme.

  • Pingback: Startup shouldn’t pay to pitch to angel investors – Dee Kay Dot As Gee

  • http://www.e27.sg Mohan Belani

    This is interesting. I’d love to speak with them to understand how they made such a decision to expand here, considering the plethora of free pitching events etc. And it’ll be a tough fight for them to get quality pitches since the Asian Business Angels Forum is happening in March. Any idea if MDA/IDA/Spring has any involvement in this?

  • Jeff

    pay to pitch is not the right way to do it. IMHO.

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  • Stan Williams

    dk is wrong.

    I am an investor and I want, indeed need, to see a whole bunch of QUALIFIED deals from any angel network.

    Angelden says it held over 7000 pitches last year in Europe, they say they help get people investmnet ready and train you HOW to pitch to us, which IMHO is a most needed service for us all.

    I am very excited to see them setting up here, lets welcome them rather than reading third hand rants and plgarising others populist blogs.

    They are Europe’s most successful network, have won numerous awards ( including HSBC’s top 25 start-ups) and have some big backers here – this is amazing news

    If we have all the funding we need here, they will go bust …. I say, if you have the time to build up (or luck out) with a networked contact fine, don’t use them.
    If however you CAN see the benefit of qualified angels giving you their time, I say go meet them at their free investment clinics (bookable on the sg site) and only THEN decide for yourself.

    If you don’t , then as dk would say, perhaps your plan is NOT good enough!

  • http://blog.dk.sg DK

    Stan Williams: I mentioned this on my reply to you in my blog. I’ll repeat myself for the sake of people who don’t visit my blog. The whole system looks like those “Model Agency” model where they “talent hunt” people along the street, convince them that they can be model, but need to pay money for modeling classes, portfolio photoshoot etc etc. Do these people become model in the end? Do the top model and actor use this sort of “Model Agency”?

    I don’t know any successful startup that uses this “pay to pitch” model. I also don’t know any reputable angel investors who associate themselves with this “pay to pitch” model. Startup shouldn’t be paying to pitch to angel investors. Angel investors should be making money from investing in the companies, not by charging them a fee for these services.