Business angels in France : an emerging force

Venture capitalists intervene very rarely in the capital of companies which are in the process of being created. The only serious source of financing for the entrepreneur is the business angel. According to the Ministry of Research, 56 % of innovative companies which won the national prize for business creation, started by using this type of financing once they opened their capital. Motivated by business and with a taste for adventure, business angels are interested in any seriously innovative company, irrespective of whether it is technological or not. Who are these business angels ? How do they make decisions ? How do they operate with entrepreneurs ? Claude Rameau, who has been a business angel for the last fifteen years, and who founded the France Angels network which brings together thirty-five regional networks, describes this development and its increasingly professional methods of working.