WIPA is a global initiative of the World Business Angels Investment Forum – an affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), governed by its own board of directors. The Board comprises the following executive council members of the WBAF Global Start-up Committee who have a mixture of entrepreneurial, technical and governance experience and expertise.
The Global Fundraising Stage (GFRS) is an international co-investment platform for angel investors, start-ups, high-growth businesses and scale-ups. The Global Start-up Committee of the World Business Angels Investment Forum is committed to helping the next generation of great companies move forward and to showcase the world’s top start-ups and scale-ups (typically, funded companies in the process of raising €100K–€10M) at the Global Fundraising Stage, establishing a superior deal pipeline that connects investors with superior start-ups, who through training and mentorship, help the next generation of companies that are raising capital to grow and scale their businesses. The Global Fundraising Stage bridges the gap between qualified investors and entrepreneurs, creating a global community that attracts the best deal flow and the most knowledgeable experts. It fosters continuous and evolving interaction between community members.
The primary functions of the Board are to establish policy guidelines for WIPA’s operations and to assist in screening prospective entrepreneurs. Board members will act as connectors to a “know-how” network to assist the Managing Director in creating links to sponsors and professional resources that can support the success of entrepreneurs accepted or selected for the WIPA programmes. The Board will be instrumental in promoting WIPA and generating awareness and understanding of the Programme as an important, forward-thinking economic development tool across the globe.
The Board will also be responsible for planning and formulating policies to guide the programmatic direction of the agency, hiring the Managing Director [and ensuring s/he delivers against objectives], and ensuring the overall financial viability of the WIPA Programmes. WIPA is run like a business and directors will take this into account when making decisions about the Programmes.
President of the Start-up Investment Promotion Agency (WIPA):
Prof Inderjit Singh, Founder of the UTAC – a Unicorn 3 years after he started the company
Prof, Dr. Inderjit Singh served as Chairman of NTUitive, the Innovation Company of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Solstar International Pte Ltd, a multinational company from Singapore. Prof. Singh was the founding President of the Singapore Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs, a network of entrepreneurs and professionals founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley, California. From 1995 to 2012, he was the Deputy Chairman of Action Community for Entrepreneurs (ACE), a Singapore national committee involved in Entrepreneurship Policy and Advocacy.
Previously, Prof. Singh founded United Test and Assembly Centre Limited, or UTAC, a Singapore-based semiconductor test and assembly company, and served as UTACs President and Chief Executive Officer. UTAC was a Unicorn 3 years after Inderjit started the company. Before founding UTAC, Prof. Singh served at Texas Instruments Singapore (known as Micron Semiconductor Asia since 1999) for 13 years, holding the post of Director of Assembly and Test Operations for the Memory Division from 1996 to 1998.
Prof. Singh also served as a Member of Parliament (MP) in Singapore, from 1996 to 2015 and was the Chairman of the Singapore Government Parliamentary Committee for Finance, Trade and Industry for a duration of his term as an MP. Prof. Singh serves as a Member of the Board of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and in the past served as a board member in several Statutory and Public Bodies, including the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board and Spring Singapore. He is an active angel investor and also holds directorship positions and investments in a number of start-up companies. Prof. Singh holds a degree in Electronics Engineering from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, an MBA from the University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom and an Honorary Doctorate from the Amity University, India.
Board Members of the Global Start-up Investment Promotion Agency in alphabetical order:
The responsibilities of the Managing Director are to recruit and screen potential new promising entrepreneurs and founders of high-growth businesses, facilitate access to the range of value-added services needed by entrepreneurs incubated and manage the overall operations. The Managing Director provides the daily energy and hands on mentoring that is catalytic to the WIPA’s mission.
Christopher Drescher,
Managing Director, Global Start-up Investment Promotion Agency (WIPA)
World Business Angels Investment Forum -An affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion
Senator for Austria, World Business Angels Investment Forum
Chair of the Global Fundraising Stage
Christoph Drescher, an Austrian-based, international-acting entrepreneur with a getting-things-done mentality and strong execution skills. 25 years’ management experience in senior positions, system integration and technical driven industries. Building up companies from scratch to 150 employees in 9 months to be fully operational (Office, IT, Telco, HR). Strong know-how in designing and improving processes along the value chain from an end-to-end customer perspective. A technical education combined with project management, sales skills and an MBA in Entrepreneurship are the solid bases for addressing any challenge. Leadership and inspiring the team are core values. Thinking in solutions and scenarios to turn visions and plans into accomplishments. As a serial Intra- and Entrepreneur he is currently building up MyPrivacy, a Cyber Security start-up focusing with its patented technology on secure content sharing where compliance matters. For many years, Christoph has been engaged in innovation scouting and the venture ecosystem, and as a Senator at the World Business Angel Investment Forum, holds the Chair of the Global Fundraising Stage at WBAF. Outside these roles he is a well-known moderator and consultant.
Apart from providing the start-ups with the funds, and access to networks, it is important to help the start-ups to think through all the issues they will face as they grow. During the WIPA mentoring process, the Agency team must ask right questions to the start-ups to help them to think through issues from different dimensions. This can be about customers, unit economics, marketing and pricing of products and more WIPA mentorship helps them think about aspects that are frequently overlooked or ignored.
Another area where the Mentorship Department helps is to monitor each start-up continuously. Regular monitoring helps them clear the hurdles while staying focussed on the milestones and objectives. Often, monitoring is frowned upon as the start-ups think that their decision-making capacity is being encroached upon, but this is never the case. WIPA’s expertise in mentorship ensures that founders wee the value that is added through continuous monitoring. Furthermore, its role in connecting start-ups to the right people whether mentor, advisor, technical expert, or service provider, is the key to help them grow.
Global Mentors Club (GMC) of the WBAF Business School is to provide mentorship for start-ups, scale-ups, and SMEs around the globe, including specific market expansion services, and to offer coaching and an active exchange of information and experience with regard to the formation, development and financial structuring of applying companies and entrepreneurs. Head of Global Mentorship Department serves to the WIPA by match-making global mentors, advisors, consultants and coaches with entrepreneurs incubated at the WIPA, by taking their specific needs into consideration. Specific needs are clarified after assessment tests and one-to-one or group interviews with entrepreneurs.
Maryam Najafi
Head of Global Mentorship Department, Global Start-up Investment Promotion Agency (WIPA)
World Business Angels Investment Forum
Head of Global Mentorship Department, WBAF Business School
World Business Angels Investment Forum
An affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI)
Maryam Najafi is the head of the Global Mentorship Department at the WBAF Business School of the World Business Angels Investment Forum. As a faculty member, she delivers a course in investment readiness for start-ups and scale-ups. A certified prize assessor of the European Foundation for Quality Management EFQM, Maryam serves as an international jury member for the Global Fundraising Stage. In addition, she conducts one-on-one mentoring sessions for WBAF Senators and International Partners and organises business mentoring programmes for selected start-ups of the Global Fundraising Stage. Maryam was head of the WBAF project proposal team for the Fintech Hub Centers Project of the Qatar Development Bank. She is the designer of the WBAF Angel Investment Fund structure. She was previously executive manager of Karaya Angel Investors and business development advisor to the Kaarmaan Business Club. She is currently CEO of Nik Venture Capital. Maryam graduated with a degree in industrial engineering from the Iran University of Science and Technology and also holds an executive MBA degree. She is currently pursuing a PhD in marketing management.
The WBAF Business School was established by the World Business Angels Investment Forum as a response to an increasing need for qualified investors, qualified entrepreneurs, in addition to a pressing need for more ‘entrepreneurial’ companies, in the ever-changing market environment of the twenty-first century.
The WBAF Business School is not only for angel investors. All stakeholders are welcome, including entrepreneurs, SMEs, banks, financial institutions, stock exchanges, incubation & acceleration centres, and large private and public corporate entities. The offerings include the following:
The Education Manager of the WIPA is concerned with the operation of educational organizations. She leads the process of planning, organizing and directing activities in the WIPA, effectively utilizing human and material resources, in order to accomplish the platform’s objectives. She is the key person to harmonise the courses of the WBAF Business School to meet the needs of entrepreneurs at the Agency.
Modwenna Rees-Mogg
Head of Education Department, Global Start-up Investment Promotion Agency (WIPA)
World Business Angels Investment Forum
Chairwoman, QBAC+ Angel Investors Accreditation Center
World Business Angels Investment Forum
An affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI)
As a former Director of the United Kingdom Business Angels Association (UKBAA), Modwenna has two decades of business experience working in corporate finance in the City of London and in business angel investment and venture capital. She set up her own business in 2003 as an online media and live events business. From £1,000 of start-up capital working out of her front room, she has grown the business to become the leading information provider and commentator on the business angel market in the UK. She [is/has just retired as] a non-executive director of Albion Technology and General VCT PLC, which is quoted on the London Stock Exchange, is a non-executive director of Asset Match Ltd, an operator of secondary markets for SMEs, and is a former board member of the UK Business Angels Association. She is the author of Crowdfunding, How to raise money and make money in the crowd – a guide to operating a business in, raising money from and being an investor in the crowdfunding market. She is also the author of Dragons or Angels, the unofficial guide to Dragons’ Den and a handbook for people wanting to become or raise money from angel investors. She regularly contributes articles to the press and has contributed to Business Gurus, which was published in March 2012 by Crimson Publishing. She is a co-author of the Qualified Angel Investor Course Book series published by the WBAF Publication House UK.
As a start-up nears completion of their milestones, they need to raise a subsequent round of funding to support its future scaling up. WIPA assists the start-up to syndicate the next round of investment by reaching out to the right investors, help the start-ups develop a strong investment pitch and also helps the start-ups negotiate good terms for the investment.
The Head of Access to Finance Department taps into various sources of funding such as government schemes, multilaterals, corporate, family offices, wealth management institutions, corporate venture capital, private equity funds and last but not the least, private investors (e.g. angel investors, HNWIs, and others wanting to build a portfolio of angel investments). The Head of Access to Finance also has access to the WBAF’s Angel Investment Fund which has a mandate to invest in start-ups and scale-ups of the WIPA, which are also eligible to pitch on the Global Fundraising Stage.
WBAF Research Institute surveys reveal that post-pandemic business environment will have great opportunities for entrepreneurs who can achieve digital transformation of their ventures. Business transformation and digital transformation were key considerations of large companies before the Pandemic, but today this is not the case. Even the smallest business owners and founders should consider business and digital transformation for their companies. We know that small businesses suffer today because of the Pandemic business environment, but they will suffer more after the Pandemic if they cannot achieve business and digital transformation of their companies. [One of the effects of the Pandemic is that large companies are likely to want to reinvigorate their own business and digital transformation by engaging with innovative SMEs, either through strategic partnerships, commercial contracts, investment or even M&A.]
WIPA’s Digital Transformation Department supports Entrepreneurs-in-Residence to find their path and pace and develop a strategic plan in digital transformation journey of their ventures. The WIPA Digital Transformation Department helps them assess how their company should evolve to extract the most value from digital technologies and business models. WIPA supports Entrepreneurs-in-Residence as they develop a digital strategy roadmap, ready to make the transformation happen in their company with the support of the department.
EIRs at the Agency gain a deeper understanding of the latest of innovative technologies and apply them to their business. The support program not only covers the successful integration of digital tools and technologies, but it also explores the complementary changes that need to occur with business transformation, such as organizational structure, products, channels, customer and employee engagement, incentives, and most importantly, company culture. EIRs will leave with a detailed roadmap of initiatives to implement, methodologies to use and technologies to apply, so that they are ready to bring their company’s digital strategy to life.
This department also introduces entrepreneurs / founders to the technology available to SMEs and the opportunities that digital engagement presents. Founders will learn why every business needs to become a digital business and explore the benefits of using technology tools to generate success. They will understand how to gain access to new markets and business channels through the use of technology, and identify new ways of engaging with customers via social media and other digital channels.
Sinan Tumer, Co-Founder & COO Naqilogix | Founder & CEO iBC Insights | Former Sr Director of SAP Research Operations
Head of Digital Transformation Department, Global Start-up Investment Promotion Agency (WIPA)
World Business Angels Investment Forum
An affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI)
Sinan, as an innovation strategist and a thought leader, helping startup, scaleup entrepreneurs and SMEs. Sinan spent three decades of his professional life at SAP Labs. As the Sr. Director of Operations of SAP Research, he was responsible for operations of Research Centers around the globe, developed best practices among research projects. Also, as the Sr. Director of SAP Co-Innovation Lab in North America, Sinan was responsible for establishing an open innovation process by harnessing SAP’s partner ecosystem to deliver new innovative business solutions to SAP’s customers. He successfully launched SAP Co-Innovation Lab at the headquarters of SAP America.
Previously he was responsible for managing international research policies at SAP Research with special emphasis on innovation deployment and adoption programs of the US Federal Government and the European Commission.
Prior to his career at SAP, he had held various IT management positions, Systems Integration consulting at Andersen Consulting and Price Waterhouse, as well as Information Systems management positions at leading consumer products companies.
Sinan holds MS degrees in Systems Engineering and Computer Sciences, both from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia USA.
If a company tries to develop business in a new market without first conducting research and creating a strategic plan, it almost ensures failure. Most companies enter a new market because an opportunity has been identified, meaning there is a need in the market that is not currently being fulfilled. If a company tries to push a product or service in a new market where there isn’t a need or want for the product or service, then sales are going to suffer and take a long time to emerge. If a company tries to sell a product or service to a new market without understanding the needs and wants of the customers in that market, then the marketing strategies may not hit the important points of the market. When the marketing doesn’t appeal to the target market, then the marketing efforts fail, and sales penetration is slow.
The development of strategies to enter a new market can take a significant amount of time. Some companies plan for years before trying to enter into a new market. Focus groups, surveys, panels, test groups and other types of market research can take months to implement. After the research is done, the company also has to take the time to evaluate and interpret the data. After this, companies often have to make modifications to the product or service, the marketing plan or the strategies it intends to use to better fit the market it is trying to enter.
WIPA’s Access to New Markets Department assists EIRs in their efforts for due diligence in research and customising strategies to develop a new market. Forward planning helps the company approach the new market in a proactive manner, through the creation of adaptive advertising and marketing based on different responses the company may receive from new customers. This department helps to ensure that the new market penetration is successful.
Anthony Parkes, Ex Managing Director, World Chambers Federation - International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
Head of Access to New Markets Department, Global Start-up Investment Promotion Agency (WIPA)
World Business Angels Investment Forum
An affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI)
Anthony Parkes is an experienced leader building global membership/client communities, corporate brand and identities; identifying and delivering new products and services; creating content and directing global events. High performing operations-management director with expertise in working in a multicultural, cross country business environment. Demonstrated history of working in the international trade and development industry supporting SME development. Recognized professional in Non-profit Organizations, working with intergovernmental and globally oriented organisations.
Brand management is the process of identifying the core value of a particular brand and reflecting the core value among the targeted customers. In modern terms, a brand could be corporate, product, service, or person. Brand management builds brand credibility and credible brands only can build brand loyalty, bounce back from circumstantial crisis, and can benefit from price-sensitive customers.
WIPA’s Strategic Brand Development & Management Department supports EIRs to develop powerful brands for their (a) start-up ventures (b) products and services of start-up ventures, from seed stage to start-up, through growth stage and then onto scale-up and ultimately, exit. WIPA believes that start-up ventures must have strong branding and sell good, branded products and services to attract more investment. Development and management of strong brands leads to higher company valuations for start-ups.
The Head of Strategic Brand Development & Management Departmentuses an array of marketing tools and techniques in order to increase the company value of a start-up venture, as much as possible. Together WIPA creates a strong brand for a start-up. We also establish values and guidelines that will characterize the company. All perfectly shaped to a company’s unique needs.
Dr. Gerhard Hrebicek, President – European Brand Institute
Head of Strategic Brand Development & Management Department , Global Start-up Investment Promotion Agency (WIPA)
World Business Angels Investment Forum
An affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI)
Dr. Gerhard Hrebicek, MBA President European Brand Institute -studied Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration at Technical University Vienna -graduated as MBA with specialisation in Marketing and Finance at University of Toronto -obtained his Ph.D. on value-based management with special emphasis on intangible assets in particular brands at the University of Graz -Founder and President of the European Brand Institute -President BRAND GLOBAL SUMMIT, Chairman BRAND GLOBAL Council -Chairman of the Austrian Committee for Brand-und Patent Valuations -Developed the standards ONR 16800, ÖNORM 6800 and ÖNORM 6801 - Chairman of the ISO Development Committee on ISO 20671: Brand Evaluation -Member of the Board of Austrian Standards Institute -Partner Summer Light Capital Partners, Chairman EBI BRANDINVEST -EBI UNIDO Partnership program “Branding for Competitiveness and Sustainable Growth” -Publicly appointed and sworn expert to Austrian courts for brand valuation.
WIPA supports entrepreneurs and start-up ventures accepted for the programmes through its extensive global communication framework. The Agency supports EIRs as they achieve global recognition, through its Start-up Communication Support Department. The ultimate goal of the department is to promote EIRs accepted for Start-up Exchange Programmes globally, helping to ease their access to finance through global promotions and also to increase company valuations.
The Head of Start-up Communication Department taps into various sources of communication channels. The communication framework includes:
The Head of Start-up Communication Department taps into various sources of communication channels. The communication framework includes:
An Executive Committee (EC), comprising eight members, responsible for ongoing oversight of the Agency. The EC meets every three months.
Senior Advisors meet two times a year. In alphabetical order:
Baybars Altuntas
Executive Chairman, World Business Angels Investment Forum
Former Senior Advisor of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), Executive Chairman of the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) – an affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) chaired by the Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, and President of Deulcom International Inc., Star of the Turkish version of the television show Dragons’ Den / Sharks Tank. Recipient of the European Trade Association of Business Angels (EBAN) award for the Best Individual in Europe Globally Engaging with the Global Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in 2014 (Ireland), 2015 (Netherlands), 2016 (Portugal), 2017 (Spain) and 2018 (Bulgaria).
The only angel investor to be granted a personal audience with former President Obama at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington DC. Appointed as JCI Ambassador, following Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary General of the United Nations. Profiled regularly by leading international media such as CNN International, Bloomberg, BBC. A co-author of Planet Entrepreneur: The World Entrepreneurship Forum's Guide to Business Success Around the World, published by Wiley (2013). Author of ‘’How I Became a Top TV Star and Celebrated Investor’’, published by Balboa Press (2014) and translated into Chinese, Croatian, Albanian, and Macedonian.
Prof. Dr. Inderjit Singh
President, WBAF Global Startup Committee
Founder of the UTAC – a Unicorn 3 years after he started the company. Prof. Dr. Inderjit Singh served as Chairman of NTUitive, the Innovation Company of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Solstar International Pte Ltd, a multinational company from Singapore. Prof. Singh was the founding President of the Singapore Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs, a network of entrepreneurs and professionals founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley, California. From 1995 to 2012, he was the Deputy Chairman of Action Community for Entrepreneurs (ACE), a Singapore national committee involved in Entrepreneurship Policy and Advocacy.
Previously, Prof. Singh founded United Test and Assembly Centre Limited, or UTAC, a Singapore-based semiconductor test and assembly company, and served as UTACs President and Chief Executive Officer. UTAC was a Unicorn 3 years after Inderjit started the company. Before founding UTAC, Prof. Singh served at Texas Instruments Singapore (known as Micron Semiconductor Asia since 1999) for 13 years, holding the post of Director of Assembly and Test Operations for the Memory Division from 1996 to 1998.
Prof. Singh also served as a Member of Parliament (MP) in Singapore, from 1996 to 2015 and was the Chairman of the Singapore Government Parliamentary Committee for Finance, Trade and Industry for a duration of his term as an MP. Prof. Singh serves as a Member of the Board of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and in the past served as a board member in several Statutory and Public Bodies, including the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board and Spring Singapore. He is an active angel investor and also holds directorship positions and investments in a number of start-up companies. Prof. Singh holds a degree in Electronics Engineering from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, an MBA from the University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom and an Honorary Doctorate from the Amity University, India.
Dr Paul Doany
Rector, WBAF Business School
After his first tenure as Group CEO of Turk Telekom (2005-2010), Dr Doany moved into ICT Venture Capital, with 22 Technology investments, half being pure start-ups, as well as expanding into renewable energy (geothermal power, hybrid biogas/solar energy + organic fertilizers). During this period, he also served as Group CEO of Turk Telekom for a further 3 years, ending late 2019 (i.e. total of 8 years), 47 million customers, and around 34k employees, during which he established the company’s CVC, Corporate Venture Capital arm, as well as supporting its Tech/Starters Accelerator, with a focus on three main verticals: Ed-Tech, Health- Tech as well the Energy; in his first Turk Telekom tenure, he led the full acquisition of four strategic IT/ technology companies, an international carrier business with 19 country operation, as well as listing the Group on the Istanbul Stock Exchange in 2008.
In summary, Dr Doany has served as Chairman in Venture Capital, Telecommunications/IT companies, and Renewable Energy companies for over ten years; a Telco CEO for over twelve years, and Managing Director of a technology management consultancy for over six years. Over the past twenty years, he managed ICT/ TMT/Renewables transactions totalling over 9 billion USD.
Dr Doany obtained his PhD in Communications Engineering & Digital Electronics, from University of Manchester (previously, UMIST), in 1981, after which he taught at the Electrical & Electronics Engineer Department in the American University of Beirut (AUB), for a period of four years, moving thereafter to the business world.
The Selection Committee and the Acceptance Committee are responsible for selecting participants for each cohort and recommending them to the Executive Committee for approval. The Committees compromise 50 international jury members, all of whom have a strong entrepreneurial and angel investment background. The Committees has 15 different scoring groups, each group has 3 – 4 members. Each applicant is scored with one of these 15 scoring groups. There are 6 selection committees: