Next month's Asian Business Angel Forum (ABAF) 2017 will feature prominent international speakers from Silicon Valley (USA), Australia, the UK, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Israel, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Sri Lanka won the chance to host this prestigious event for the first time, beating many Asian countries for the honour.
ABAF is Asia's largest annual start-up investor forum, attracting premier business angels, venture capitalist, entrepreneurs, policymakers, government officials and other like-minded high net-worth individuals (HNIs) to one central networking platform.
The forum has been held successfully across Asia ever since its inaugural event in Singapore in 2010 "There will be over 25 start-ups from Venture Engine showcased for ABAF 2017 delegates. Interestingly, this year's Venture Engine applications consisted mostly of post-revenue companies where some were at the seed investment stage, while others were looking to secure Series A funding, a key indicator of the increasing sophistication of our market," noted a Founder Member of the Lankan Angel Network, the host organisation for ABAF 2017.
ABAF 2017 will comprise sessions on "Facilitating Cross Border Investments between Angel Networks", "Global and Regional Start-up Trends", "Driving Exits" and "Impact Funding." Sri Lanka's well-received bid to host ABAF, which was submitted at the 2015 conference in New Zealand, was a landmark achievement for the start-up eco-system locally.
Emphasizing the ABAF's 2017 theme of "Crafting the Future", the conference offers valuable analysis of what is trending in the regional and global start-up scenes. It also provides extensive technical training and panel discussions offering insights in many vital areas, including investing across borders, how to drive exits, impact funding, etc, all the while, tapping a number of highly distinguished speakers to contribute at each of its sessions across the two-day event.