All business projects applied for the monthly Investment Session are assessed at several selection stages:

Selection stage in person. All authors of business projects are invited to selection in person, where every business leader is given 3 minutes to present his project. Experts assess the readiness of the project for addressing investors, giving important comments, and indicating project weaknesses that need to be paid special attention to for the business idea to be viable.

Assessment by investors. Concurrently to experts’ research and feedback, business angels assess all business project applications electronically on the international private investor platform Dealum.

Compiling evaluations. Experts’ and private investors’ evaluations are summarised and 6 best projects are invited to participate in the Investment Session.

Regardless of the final evaluation, all applicants are informed about the final decision made by LatBAN.

Regardless of the results, every new entrepreneur is a winner, since comments and advices provided by experts give an opportunity to every applicant to improve their current business idea, making it more promising and competitive.

Projects that are not ready for the Investment Session receive diagnostics developed by experts to be able to improve the project and apply it repeatedly.

Over the years of its operation, the association management has summarised the main criteria to which private investors pay particular attention when assessing every business project to provide investments.  Based on these criteria, consultations are carried out — preparation of a project team for Investment Sessions. This stage is intended for those six business projects recognized as the best after the selection stage and invited to the monthly Investment Session.

At this stage, experts, management of the association “Latvian Business Angel Network”, examine each project in even greater detail, providing advice and answering questions asked by the project business leader. The goal of consultations is to prepare business leaders for the Investment Session, indicating things, to which they need to pay greater attention, and improvements to be made for the business project to become more promising. Consultations are provided both in-person and electronically.

At the monthly Investment Session, six most promising new entrepreneurs meet with experienced business angels–investors ready to invest their private funds in new projects.

Progress of the Investment Session:

• Each business leader is given 5 minutes for presenting his project.
• After every presentation, a 5 minute Q&A session takes place, during which business angels ask questions to business leaders.
• Once investors have become acquainted with all six projects, individual negotiations begin. During these negotiations, investors clarify different nuances and, possibly, agree with the project team on further negotiations time to commence agreement on possible investments.

All Investment Sessions are recorded. The video record is sent to investors that have not participated in the particular session, thus giving them an opportunity to show interest in any of the projects.

The video of their presentation is received also by the business project manager to be able to assess his performance and improve his presentation skills after the session.

After the Investment Session, individual negotiations are carried out between the private investor and the business project team. At this stage, investors have an opportunity to get to know the business leader closer, asking additional questions, clarifying any uncertainties and learning more about project nuances, thus assessing the cooperation potential in greater detail.

Upon mutual agreement, cooperation is commenced between the project team and the business angel. If necessary, the management of the association “Latvian Business Angel Network” gets involved in negotiations, consulting both the investor and the entrepreneur on the best solution for investments.

Often enough, interest in a particular project is shown by several investors simultaneously. In such case, joint investments are most often made — several investors invest the necessary amount in the project, if they have agreed thereon with the project team.