72 countries celebrated the World Business Angel Investors Week

This
year’s global theme is Business Diplomacy for International Entrepreneurship.
The event took place over 18-24 October 2021 and hosted more than 80,000
entrepreneurs, startups, investors, innovators, policy makers, and thought
leaders from around the world. Baybars Altuntas, Global Chair of the Week and
Executive Chairman of the World Business Angels Investment Forum, kicked
off the Week with a Grand Opening Ceremony hosting a long list of honorary
speakers including H.E. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, President of the Republic
of Croatia (2015-2020) and ministers from Costa Rica, Canada, North
Macedonia, Monaco, Mexico, Jamaica, Thailand, and UAE, regional leaders of
angel investors, as well as continental chairs of the Week including Derik
Kim, Continental Chair Asia.

Mariana
Kou, WBAW Country Chair
China, highlighted during the 21 October
2021 session for China that innovation and technology advancement were key to
social and economic development and encouraged all stakeholders in the public
and private sectors to collaborate and contribute to the startup economy in
China, Asia, and globally. Raymond Wong, head of Investment at the Hong
Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, gave a keynote speech sharing
the role of Hong Kong in China’s entrepreneurial journey. Keynote speaker Emily
Lam-Ho, founder of 8Shades, co-founder of EcoDrive, and managing partner of
Empact28 shared how she worked towards building a greener world with an impact
investing platform, a NGO, and a startup venture. A roundtable moderated by Roland
Yau, managing partner of CoCoon Ignite Ventures invited Lavine Hemlani,
founder of Xccelerate, Theodore Ma, founder of MPower, and Lara Wang,
co-founder of Link Resources Asia to speak about their views and expectations on
the future of work. The WBAW China session concluded with a fireside chat on
the East and West venture capital landscape, hosted by Anson Bailey,
head of consumer and retail of ASPAC and head of technology of Hong Kong with
speaker Kent Ho, founder and general partner of S28 Capital, member of
board of directors, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, and Honorary
Trustee of Peking University.

Re-live
all sessions at www.angelsweek.org

World Business Angels Investment Forum

As an affiliated partner of the G20 Global
Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), the World Business Angels
Investment Forum (WBAF) is committed to collaborating globally to empower the
economic development of the world by fostering innovative financial instruments
for startups, scaleups, innovators, entrepreneurs, and SMEs and to promoting
gender equality and women’s participation in all sectors of the world economy.
WBAF invites you to join our global efforts to ease access to finance, promote
financial inclusion, and create more jobs and social justice.

Strategic Partners of the World
Business Angels Investment Forum

Strategic Partners are some of the
world’s top industry leaders representing diverse regions and industries; they
are committed to the idea that interaction between multiple stakeholders can be
a positive force in creating change. They work in close cooperation with the
Forum to help shape regional and global agendas in the global and regional
investment markets. Through this cooperation, Strategic Partners contribute to
the global knowledge base and benefit from it as they determine the agenda of
Forum meetings and develop the focus of Forum initiatives. WBAF has signed
strategic collaborative agreements with global and regional institutions to
empower the economic development of the world.

• International
  Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group (IFC)
• London
  Stock Exchange Group (LSEG)
• World
  Association of International Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA)
• International
  Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP)
• The
  Middle East Business Angels Network (MBAN)
• The
  African Trade Association for Business Angels (ABAN)
• The
  World Free & Special Economic Zones Federation (FEMOZA)
• The
  Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the Mediterranean (ASCAME)
• International
  Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
• Junior
  Chamber International (JCI)

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