The valuation of start-ups. How do I deal with this as an angel investor?

Last week, three start-ups and scale-ups presented their investment plans at the Business Angels Network Nijmegen, which was set up three years ago by the Business Angels Network East NL team and others. Besides the interest in the pitches, the angels also meet to make mutual contacts and gain investment knowledge.

Planon

Successful Nijmegen entrepreneur Pierre Guelen (Planon) talked about the growth spurt of his company and the challenges he experienced in the first five years. He now runs a global facility management software company and has recently built his own campus for start-ups.

Aeternus

Aeternus as a new partner then gave an interesting story about valuing start-ups. What language do you have to speak and which elements of a valuation are important? Tips and tricks from practice were passed in review.

About Business Angels Network Nijmegen

Business Angels Network Nijmegen is the network of angel investors that strengthens the ecosystem of Nijmegen start-ups and scale-ups (Health and High Tech). The network brings together the angels and the selected and prepared start-ups and scale-ups on a regular basis. Other partners are Briskr, The Economic Board, Rabobank, BDO, Poelmann van den Broek, EP&C, Aeternus, Rockstart and the municipality of Nijmegen.

By now, a group of 60 active angels have joined our network and in the past 3 years we have “triggered” around €2.5 million in investments from these angels and other financiers/investment funds.

If you are a business angel and interested to join this network, please contact Martijn Kriens or Bart Heuts for more information

Follow the Nijmegen pathway to entrepreneurship in Health and High Tech!

The Nijmegen area is the hotspot of innovation in Health and High Tech. Entrepreneurs and researchers are developing their innovation and growing their business, supported by a strong ecosystem. Over the past four years, this already led to many great results. For the next years we want to build upon this foundation to further accelerate ofinnovative entrepreneurship for the region to grow the regional economy and create a societal impact.

Together with our partners and, most importantly, the entrepreneurs in our network. Follow this pathway and discover the journey of entrepreneurs through our ecosystem. Explore how input becomes output, and the way we eventually reached our most important objective: 570 new jobs in Health and High Tech. Let’s continue this journey together!

Download the Nijmegen pathway as pdf file

Slides and recording Briskr ‘Trends & developments in the medical sector in China’

We organized the Briskr workshop’ Trends & developments in the medical sector in China: business opportunities for the Netherlands on May 31. This session interactively addressed the Chinese demand for Dutch products and technology and highlighted steps Dutch companies can take in order to do business with China.

Judith van de Bovenkamp, OostNL, kicked off this meeting on the trends and developments in the medical sector in China. She explained how Go4export can support you in doing business abroad. For example export vouchers are available for entrepreneurs, you can participate in a trade mission or visit an international fair. Judiths tip: Learn from the experiences of other entrepreneurs and make use of the international network. this way, you can prepare yourself well in doing business with China.

The second speaker was Nico Schiettekatte, from the Dutch Embassy. He informed us that the ministry can support entrepreneurs who want to do business with China in sectors such as pharma, medical devices & health. And he gave an overview of facts and figures in medical markets. The ministry can help you in finding reliable contacts, partners and events (from contact to contract!). There are several offices of the Dutch government in China to help you on the spot.

In the final part, Reinout van Malenstein, HFG IP Firm Shanghai explained us that it is necessary to register your IP. There are some important things you have to know to protect your trademark in China. There are differences between trademarks and patents in Europa and in China. You need to register it also in China, otherwise you do not have any protection. Even if you do not (yet) have any trade in China, you have to register in China. As European rights will not work in China.

We closed this workshop with a Q&A and online networking. This is the first in a series of workshops on doing business (far) abroad. More countries/dates will be communicated shortly.

Presentation Judith van de Bovenkamp, Project Manager International, Oost NL

Presentation Nico Schiettekatte, attaché Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport

The recording will follow soon.

MIT R&D Cooperation Projects

Do you want to set up a research & development project together with 1 or more SMEs? If so, you can apply for a subsidy from 1 June 2021 at 9 am. There is one important change compared to previous years: your plans must fit within one of the following Knowledge and Innovation agendas:

Energy and Sustainability;
Health and Care;
Agriculture, Water and Food;
Safety;
Key Enabling Technologies;
Social Earnings.

Does your plan fit within one of these agendas? Then you can apply for a subsidy for an R&D Collaboration project.

More information by this link (in Dutch).

AI for Life: podcast 6: Self-learning algorithms

The 6th episode of the podcast series AI for Life is live, and this time it’s about “self-learning algorithms”.

Many smart algorithms get completely lost when change occurs within the context in which the algorithm has been trained. This often leads to errors that may be logical but come across as very stupid to the unsuspecting user. So the question is: how can we make algorithms more resilient to changes in context? In this episode, we talk about “self-learning algorithms” with experts:

– Marcel van Gerven, Professor of AI at Donders Institute of Radboud University and Radboudumc.

– Elsbeth van Dam, researcher at Noldus Information Technology and PhD candidate at Radboud University.

– And Lucas Noldus, founder of Noldus Information Technologies and currently also a professor at Radboud University.

Listen to the podcast with this link.

Look back to the Expert session: The power of H2 cross-border cooperation

As part of The Future of Us, Go4Export / Oost NL and Kiemt together organized an expert session. During this online event the strengths of the cooperation between the Netherlands and Germany in the field of hydrogen were discussed.

One conclusion was the striking political will and willingness to cooperate between East Netherlands and West Germany in the field of hydrogen. The tooling has already been developed and we also see driven entrepreneurs who want to get started across the border. It means we have to get started! Therefore, there will be a follow-up to this expert session.

Did you miss this session? Then watch it again on their website (in Dutch).

Recording from SMB meeting on High Tech in healthcare (March 4, 2021)

The topic of this SMB meeting was cooperation with OnePlanet. OnePlanet is a new initiative by IMEC together with Wageningen University, Radboudumc and Radboud University. Their focus is on technology innovations in Food, Health and our environment. The Oneplanet Program can play a major role in our region in the next decade in terms of the invention of new technologies, the validation of those and in sucessfully bringing these to the market. Chris gave an overview of some of the cool projects they are working on and how he looks towards future collaboration on creating impact. His presentation was followed by two pitches of startup companies that already collaborate with OnePlanet: Ivido, Hans Niendieker and ConnectedCare, Martijn Vastenburg. Final speaker was Harry van Goor, Prof. dr. at Radboudumc, who talked about the importance of collaboration in innovation from his perspective as a medical doctor and the need of monitoring real patients in studies like the Virtual Patient Monitoring Platform.

You can watch the recording below:

Kick-off to Unique Semiconductor Packaging Education Program

The new Semiconductor Packaging education program that was developed by Hogeschool Arnhem en Nijmegen (HAN) and Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC) has launched. The education program closes the gap between study and work. The launch of the course is a big step forward for CITC.

Heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging—stacking and packaging of chips—is essential for connecting chips and protecting them. CITC develops new technology to make the chip shell smaller, better and cheaper. The innovation center thus plays an important role in smartphones, cars and operating room of the future, for example.

The Essential Pitch, podcast by David Beckett

We organized the Briskr workshop ‘Pitching’ by David Beckett. Now he has made a podcast about the Essential Pitch.

This is the show which helps you make great pitches and presentations, so you can raise money, win business, and grow your confidence – and you’ll learn from people who are doing it at the highest level. I’m David Beckett, Pitch Coach, TEDx speech coach and founder of the Best3Minutes pitch methodology. I’ve coached over 1400 Startups to win over €340Million in investment. I’ve also trained more than 20,000 professionals at companies such as Booking.com, Tommy Hilfiger, PwC, Shell and Netflix. For more help with creating your winning pitch, go to Best3minutes.com.

Listen on

Be aware of intellectual property

Protecting your intellectual property (IP) and assets is something that is often overlooked. This is a shame, especially in this day and age, where the internet is used as a main means of marketing, source of finding products, brands and new ideas on how to expand.

Intellectual property is more than just patenting inventions or prohibiting someone from copying your texts on their website. If these rights are used in the right way, it enhances companies brands, its position in the market and reputation.

An example of the last year is a beer brand which has the same name as a virus which causes a world wide pandemic: Corona. In this case, Corona could do several things based on their IP rights. Of course, they could change the name of the brand in order to avoid any confusion. However, using its trade mark and copyright could also be used to battle fake news or conspiracy theories on its connection with the virus. During this period, it also battled a conflict with a Chinese company, Chitanco. They wanted to free ride on the reputation of Corona by using the brand logo Chitanco for beer in the Benelux. Even though the brands names and way of writing were not similar, the fact that the brand Corona is so well known for its good reputation, caused that the trade mark Chitanco could not be used.

The aforementioned example shows that a good use of IP rights protects your brand so that others cannot free ride on your well established reputation. However, IP rights can also help you in the case that someone copies your website and/or lay out for e-mails. This is a tactic which is commonly used with phishing e-mails in order to make them look more legit.

Developing and/or inventing a product costs time, money, effort and resources. Insufficient legal protection can cause the product to be copied freely, which causes the investment to not be recouped. Sufficient IP protection prohibits another from copying your product, or make it possible to ask a license fee. This is can also be the case when developing software.

As said, developing a product cost an investment and the same goes for a trade mark. Developing a brands trade mark and deciding what it stands for is one side of marketing. Having it properly IP protected strengthens its reputation (as with Corona). However, not enforcing the trademark registration can cause invalidity of the trade mark. Furthermore, discovering that the trademark does not cover a new category of products, can cause damage to the brand and confusion for (potential) customers.

Another side of the medal is the situation in which it is unclear what the IP rights of a company are. This can either cause an unwilling infringement of the IP rights of another. In these cases not knowing what your rights exactly are, can also cause in paying damages which are not necessary or not selling products which you can.

Realize IP protection and what to keep in mind

The first step in realizing IP protection is to have in mind what needs to be achieved.

A first aim can be the protection of products. This can for instance be achieved by applying for a patent or establishing a copyright. If the aim is to protect a brands reputation from confusion or free riding by competitors, this can be done by registering a trade mark or trade name.

A second aim can be to build a brand. Having IP rights in mind while doing so, forces you to a have a strategy. By registering a trade mark, it has to be clear what the trade mark should be, to which products this sees but also foresee to which products the registration must be expanded in the future. This process can create a better overview of the aimed market with trademarks, products and services, so that it is easier to identify a market gap. Furthermore, it limits the chance of unintentionally infringing someone else’s IP rights.

A third aspect is that having an overview of possible/existing IP rights also helps for a quick response if there is a suspicion of an infringement.

The last aspect is that IP rights can differ around the globe. An example is that in the US copyrighted works can be registered, while in the EU this is not possible. Also, in China trademark protection is shorter and possible for other types of marks than in the EU. Furthermore, even in the EU it is possible that different countries have different laws regarding a subject. If we look at current matters, the Brexit is expected to have an influence on e.g. reregistering certain IP rights.

In any case, it is wise to get advice before deciding upon or using your IP rights.

How can BDO help?

BDO can assist companies and private persons in numerous ways regarding IP matters. We have an extended national and international network where we can rely on and advise you with. We are experienced in advising on IP matters in the broadest sense, such as software and copyright, but also on Adwords. We can advise on matters with establishing IP rights and send or assess received IP infringement claims.

Together with EP&C we are hosting two webinars on Wednesday 10 March and Wednesday 17 March regarding various IP related matters. These webinars are free of charge.