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Senator Darcy Boyce, Minister for Energy, Immigration, Telecommunications and Invest Barbados, Senator Darcy Boyce.

Senator Boyce looks at angel investing

 

Barbados has not gone far enough in improving the chances of successful new enterprise development, according to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Energy, Immigration, Telecommunications and Invest Barbados, Senator Darcy Boyce.
 
Addressing the launch of the LINK-Caribbean Regional Angel Investor Network Project Of World Bank and Caribbean Export at the Hilton Barbados earlier this week, he said that while in the late 1980s and early 1990s there had been a new angel investing initiative in agriculture and agro-industry, very little has happened since then.
 
He therefore commended LINK-Caribbean and Caribbean Export on this new attempt to build out the system of new enterprise financing and new venture development.
 
Speaking to those gathered for the event, he stated that angel investors are interested in new businesses with the expectation of earning an adequate return on their investment.
 
“To increase the chances that they do earn such a return, the angel investors are prepared to invest their ability, experience, access to other businesses and networks, along with their capital in the early stage businesses they find attractive. However the operative words are “early stage businesses”. In other words, angel investors are not typically interested in research and development, or testing of prototypes. They want to invest in a young business that has engaged successfully with its customer base and had begun to earn revenues or is close to doing so,” Boyce added.
 
Furthermore, the senator reminded that angel investors were hands on in the management of the new business; a fact that project proponents had to live with.
 
“The more involved the angel investor is, the greater the likelihood of success of the business and the faster the growth in its value. This is what the angel investor wants so that he can make a profitable exit from the business. The angel investor network will succeed in doing this if it brings together investors that have these abilities as well as the appetite to wait longer than usual for their returns on investment,” the minister insisted.

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