NIKOLAUS D. BAYER IS GERMANY´S BUSINESS ANGEL 2020
For the 20th time, the Business Angels Netzwerk Deutschland (BAND) awarded the “Goldene Nase” last year with which the “Business Angel of the Year” is chosen. In 2020, the non-endowed prize was given to Nikolaus Bayer, who was himself an entrepreneur until five years ago.
THE “ADVOCATUS DIABOLI” OF HIS STARTUPS
The angel investor acted as an entrepreneur until 2015. At that time, he had sold Iris Analytics, a startup which he had co-founded and is specialized in security analytics to prevent payment fraud, to IBM. Before founding the company in 2007, Bayer held senior positions at major IT companies and IT security firms. He says how he sees himself in his role as an angel investor: “I have a professional standard for myself as a business angel and pay particular attention to intensive exchange, high availability and a short response time for my founders whenever they need me. And I’m also quite good at the ‘Advocatus Diaboli’ as well as the driver.”
Today, Bayer invests in innovative start-ups focusing on software, artificial intelligence, digitalization and process optimization. He currently holds stakes in ten companies, including node.enery and Cognilize, among others, and has already been able to realize two exits.
FROM LEARNER TO TEACHER
From start-up founder to angel investor, this is the role embodied by more and more angel investors in Germany. They know the “inner lifecycle” of a start-up from their own experience, know where problems can arise and can help the startups they have invested in with their extensive industry know-how.
Over the past 9 years, a large number of experienced business angels have taught as part of the Business Angel Institute – they know what really counts in practice and are the best people to talk to if you want to learn.
If you don’t have access to the top representatives of the scene yourself, you can dive into the network through our course program and learn the most important topics around Angel Investment in courses (online). Get started today with the world’s first ISO certified CBA (Certified Business Angel “CBA™” Program) – Learn more here.
