If the international business angel world needs a pin up to showcase the essence of what it means to be a business angel, they should surely select Alan Barrell.  

A serial entrepreneur with a number of multimillion pound companies under his belt; a dedication to supporting younger entrepreneurs, not just through investment but also through many other initiatives; a venture capitalist and a devotee of many charitable causes, Alan Barrell has certainly had a full and interesting life.  Like many other business angels, he has not retired!  His current public activities include his roles at Entrepreneur in Residence, University of Cambridge Entrepreneurship Centre and Visiting Professor of Enterprise, University of Bedfordshire  as well as the Chairmanship of Health Enterprise East Ltd.

It is in his role as a business angel however, that he is of particular interest to the readers of this EASY Newsletter.  Alan is passionate not only about his own business angel investments, but also about promoting and improving the business angel world generally and tirelessly travels the globe supporting ground-breaking initiatives in the industry, such as the EASY Project.  He is well placed to do so, being a member of a number of networks including Cambridge Angels and Sophia Business Angels.

We caught up with him at the EASY event in Sophia Antipolis.  One sign of his unusual ability to create links where others might not was his invitation to two British companies, Probe Scientific and Quotient Diagnostics to accompany him to the event so that they would have the opportunity to meet many international angel investors.  

The delegates at the event were given the opportunity to hear Alan speak on the field of medical technology investing where he shared his knowledge of this very important investment sector.  In a quiet, but fact filled, visual and entertaining speech, he explained the size of the opportunity for investors in areas such as imaging and radiology, instrumentation, the operating theatre, the community and over the counter, as well as “new sectors” such as telemedicine, wireless mobile devices, and implantable drug delivery systems. Whilst the med tech world is complex and diverse, it is also increasingly converging and there are many incremental and disruptive technologies in areas such as robotics and nanotechnology which will bring about fundamental shifts in the market place.  

The value of these technologies runs into €billions and he pointed out that angels should therefore be looking seriously at them, but at the same time will have to invest “patient” capital as many of them will take many years to exploit fully their commercial potential.  As he summed up, the angels who take stakes in companies in this sector will be backing “Tomorrow’s World – today.”  And on that basis, the investment will not just be about making money, it will be about making the world a better place for future generations.  In taking this view, Alan surely sums up the essence of business angel-ness.