Qualified Early-Stage Investor Course

There is a growing need in Australia for a robust education framework to provide early-stage investors with the tools they need to make sound investment decisions and build a purposeful and profitable investment portfolio.

In partnership with Angel Loop, UQ Ventures is presenting potential investors with case studies, expert presentations and facilitated discussions designed to help you learn how to successfully identify, evaluate and manage your own personal early-stage investment portfolio.

This course provides the necessary financial literacy pathways to enable attendees to be recognised as sophisticated investors under Section 761GA of the Corporations Act, 2001. According to The Federal Treasury, wealth is not the sole determinate of whether an investor is a sophisticated/wholesale investor with respect to early-stage investments.

For more information visit the event website.

Any member of the public who is interested in investing in Australian innovations.

Participants will learn how to:

• assess the merits of an investment
• understand the value proposition of that investment
• understand the risks associated with holding that investment
• can make independent decisions based on the adequacy of the information provided about that investment

Topics covered in the course

• Culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in Australia
• Startup ecosystem – where do Angels fit
• The risk involved – investment thesis and startup economics
• Portfolio theory and construction
• How to identify opportunities
• How can you help a startup
• Negotiation, term sheets and deal economics
• Assessment and due diligence
• Role of Angel Groups
• Deal syndication

Simon Horne, CEO of Angel Loop

Simon is an Angel Investor and currently CEO of Australia's largest Angel Investor network Angel Loop which has grown to 17 groups across Queensland and New South Wales. Previously he had 15 years of international entrepreneurial experience having started a number of businesses in Asia and more recently in the US.

The most successful was the Silicon Valley startup BlueJeans where he joined as employee #1 and helped formulate the idea, assisted getting the initial funding and was part the foundation team in 2009/10. The cloud-based Video Conferencing platform has gone on to raise USD175 million from valley VC firms including Accel Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Battery Ventures & Norwest Venture partners. It employs over 600 people and exited to Verizon for USD500 million in June 2020.

This course is designed to provide financial literacy educational content only. A Financial Services Licensee is required to assess the attendee’s experience to be recognised as a Sophisticated Investor under Sect 761GA of the Corporations Act. That decision is wholly at the discretion of the Licensee and is in accordance with the Act.

Angel Loop is a Registered Charity (QLD) that promotes a culture of Innovation and Entrepreneurship through the promotion of a culture of Investment where financial returns may not be the primary consideration in choosing to invest to bringing public utility innovations to commercial fruition.

Host or Publisher UQ Ventures