Top 7 COREangels Angels and Fund Leaders at COREangels Day and our Community at the Web Summit
In this month's newsletter we're celebrating our TOP 7 COREangels Angels and Fund Leaders! Join us as we take a look back at our latest events - Defence Tech Meetup, highlights from Web Summit and our very own COREangels Day!
Read more about Rui Falcao and Olena Kleiner ???? 's attendance at Defence Tech Meetup, Palqee taking the AI Summit Stage at Web Summit , and Intuitivo winning Web Summit's 2024 Pitch Competition; find out how you can be a part of our community through our Angel Investors Hub Online Course, our Angel Fund Management Course and our Angel Fund Launchpad Program!
Happy Angel Investing!
TOP 7 COREangels Angel Investors and Fund Leaders of 2024
TOP 7 COREangels Angel Investors and Fund Leaders of 2024
COREangels Day 2024, held on November 11th, brought together our global community of angel investors, fund leaders and founders of our startups in an inspiring celebration of this year’s milestones and a glimpse into what 2025 holds for us all.
This year’s event was particularly special, as it featured two exciting new segments: a live startup pitch showcase and the debut of the Angel Investors Awards and Fund Leaders Awards, honoring the remarkable contributors who drive COREangels' vision forward. From exceptional investors to visionary fund leaders, these awards celebrate individuals who have shown unparalleled commitment, ingenuity, and impact within our global network.
Category: The Smartest Money Award?
Fund: COREangels Lisbon
A business developer and angel investor at heart, Isabel entered COREangels as one of COREangels Lisbon’s angel investors. Most recently, she became an Angel Fund Leader through her newly established angel fund, COREangels Food.?
Nevertheless, giving due praise to the remaining nominees, Isabel Faria winning “The Smartest Money Award ” is a testament to her exceptional dedication to advancing COREangels Lisbon. Meant for the angel who provides the most strategic value beyond capital, this award also recognizes Isabel’s honest, clear feedback while leading the fund’s Involvement Board, ensuring that every startup is well-supported, living up to what it means to be an archangel in the COREangels community.
Nominees
Category: Network Connector Award?
Fund: COREangels Climate & COREangels Lisbon
While Gabriel Calgaro and Matthias Fehr were also worthy nominees, Alexander Griekspoor was the one who took the award home. The COREangels Climate & COREangels Lisbon angel investor, who started out developing apps while studying Biology, was deemed as the angel who excelled at making the most impactful connections within the COREangels ecosystem, aligning capital and opportunity, connecting angels, startups, and new investors while supporting several COREangels funds.
Nominees
Gabriel Calgaro ( COREangels Pacific )
Category: Portfolio Builder Award?
Fund: COREangels Lisbon
The business angel has a long track record of scouting and developing promising startups, thus making him the just winner of an award which recognizes the angel who brought the best startups to Investment Committees of their fund. Pedro’s incredible impact in scouting and selecting startups has been a driving force of COREangels Lisbon, seeing him display the motivation and dedication of a true archangel.?
Nominees
Category: Archangel Award?
Fund: COREangels Atlantic
The Archangel Award recognizes an angel who is in closer contact with one particular startup (sometimes even more), understanding the business and its challenges, and bringing other angels in for support, showing them consistent support and ultimately contributing to their progress.
With Isabel Margarita Bravo, Giancarlo Bonsel and Miguel Eguizabal as nominees, the award went to the late Alex Vieira Pinto. Alex’s dedication, especially to Palqee, helped bring the dreams of entrepreneurs to life, offering his wisdom and guidance as a true champion of innovation. He was deeply involved with COREangels Atlantic, joining in 2019 and becoming the cherished archangel of both KnowCode and Palqee. Maurizio Calcopietro received the award in his stead, recognizing and honoring Alex as the angel who showed the most consistent support to startups, enabling their progress.
In the words of his son: “The role of an investor truly brought out a new spark in my father. It was always something he spoke about with great energy and perspective. I feel very grateful that he had this experience with you.”. We honor Alex’s memory and wish him a peaceful final journey. His spirit, support, and kindness remain an inspiration to us all.
Nominees
Category: The Investor of the Year Award?
Fund: COREangels Pacific
This award’s nominees consisted of: Alexander Griekspoor, Luís Henrique Vasconcelos, Mohamed ElGamal and Ulrich Geilinger, with the award winner being Chris Vallejo Schwarzenbach.
The COREangels Pacific angel investor has a long history of investing in digital and financial solutions. His substantial contributions made him our largest investor by ticket size, but Chris also provides invaluable support in startup analysis, reinforcing his commitment year after year.
Nominees
Category: COREangels Fundraising Master Award?
Stepping into the Leader Nominations, the COREangels Fundraising Master Award aimed to recognize the fund leader who demonstrated exceptional dedication and skill in raising funds, expanding COREangels’ reach and impact.?
With Jorge Martinez Arroyo, an inspiring leader in his own right, as the runner-up, David Griesbach received the Fundraising Master Award. His extensive, successful journey through investing, development and consulting is only matched by his commitment to further propel the COREangels ecosystem forward.
Nominees
Category: COREangels Spirit Award?
领英推荐
Fund: COREangels Barcelona
Lastly, the COREangels Spirit Award was presented, ending the award ceremony. While Maurizio Calcopietro was rightfully recognized as a nominee, Urs Rothmayr was selected as the winner!
The COREangels Barcelona Co-Founder was deemed as the fund leader who truly embodied the COREangels spirit of collaboration, support, and dedication. The startups scouted and invested, the events attended and all the conference talks given in order to advance COREangels and all of its members undoubtedly speaks volumes regarding Urs’s commitment to the COREangels cause - to create a global community of angel investors!
Nominees
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How to Make the Most of Defence Tech Meetup Events, A Guide for Fund Managers
The second edition of the Defence Tech Meetup, held in Lisbon during Web Summit week, brought together a dynamic mix of professionals passionate about reshaping the future of defence technology. From startup founders and investors to representatives of armed forces and government, the evening delivered an exciting lineup of discussions, networking opportunities, and showcases of cutting-edge innovations in maritime security and beyond.
COREangels was proud to have Rui Falcao and Olena Kleiner ???? , representing Angels For Ukraine Powered by COREangels . This meetup proved to be an incredible platform for fostering meaningful dialogue, sharing ideas, and sparking collaborations within the European and global defence tech ecosystem. Here’s a recap of the highlights and tips for making the most out of events like this as an angel investor.
Setting the Stage: Insights from Industry Leaders
The event began with an engaging introduction by André Marquet of Productized, Maria Luisa Moreira, and Olena Kleiner, who set the tone for an evening filled with expertise and collaboration. Keynote presentations and panels followed, shedding light on the current challenges and innovations shaping maritime security, with insights from the Portuguese Navy and the Hidrographic Institute. These sessions provided invaluable context for understanding the strategic priorities in the defence sector.
Highlights from the Panel Discussions
The panel featured a rich discussion on how startups can engage with major players and secure funding from deep tech investors. COREangels’ own Rui Falc?o shared his insights into supporting Ukrainian startups through Angels for Ukraine, emphasizing the importance of angel networks in fostering resilience and innovation in challenging times.
Key Takeaways for Angel Investors
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COREangels Atlantic's Palqee speaks at Web Summit’s AI Summit Stage
At Web Summit 2024, Palqee's CEO, Sabrina P. , joined an inspiring panel alongside industry leaders Ben Colman from Reality Defender and Kalev Hannes Leetaru from The GDELT Project, engaging in a thought-provoking conversation about the influence of AI on U.S. elections and democracy. The discussion highlighted critical issues around misinformation, AI regulation, and the need for safeguards in AI systems.
The Growing Complexity of Misinformation in the Age of AI
Misinformation is not a new phenomenon, but the advent of AI has significantly amplified its reach and complexity. As the panelists discussed, AI-powered systems can create and spread misleading content at an unprecedented scale. Palme emphasized the need for both AI providers and deployers to take responsibility for the accuracy and reliability of the content generated by their systems. She pointed out that the type of media consumed by users directly correlates with the topics on which they are likely to encounter misinformation, making it even more important to monitor and control these outputs.
The Role of AI Providers and Deployers
A key takeaway from the panel was the shared responsibility of AI providers and deployers to question whether their systems are producing truthful outputs. Both parties must also ensure that the inputs used by AI systems are genuine and reliable, especially as these systems scale. This is a major concern, particularly in the context of political events like the U.S. elections, where AI-generated misinformation can sway public opinion and impact democratic processes.
Sabrina Palme spoke passionately about Palqee's role in addressing these challenges. Palqee's platform, Prisma, helps enterprises and AI providers monitor the performance and quality of their AI systems in real-time. Prisma ensures that AI outputs are in alignment with company policies and ethical standards, helping to prevent the creation of misleading or harmful content.
Safeguarding AI Outputs: Solutions for the Future
As the panel concluded, the speakers agreed that safeguarding AI outputs is critical to preventing the spread of malicious or fake content. While technologies like Reality Defender are helping to identify and take down deepfakes, the responsibility lies with both AI providers and deployers to ensure that their systems are used ethically and in line with intended policies.
In this context, Palqee's Prisma stands out as a vital tool in helping enterprises monitor AI systems, ensuring they comply with company policies and remain free of harmful inaccuracies. By providing real-time performance tracking, Prisma allows businesses to maintain control over the content generated by their AI systems, preventing misuse and protecting both users and the broader ecosystem.
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COREangels Lisbon’s Intuitivo Wins Web Summit 2024 Pitch Competition
In a remarkable achievement, Intuitivo, a portfolio startup backed by COREangels Lisbon, has emerged as the winner of the Web Summit 2024 Pitch Competition, one of the most prestigious startup contests in the world. Competing against over 2,700 startups, this victory reinforce's Intuitivo's global awareness in the education tech sector.
Revolutionizing Education with Innovation
Founded to empower teachers and revolutionize education, Intuitivo is a digital assessment platform already impacting the productivity of over 35,000 teachers and the education of more than 300,000 students. The platform streamlines assessment creation and grading, reducing the time teachers spend on repetitive tasks by 40%. With 85 million teachers globally dedicating 46% of their time to non-teaching activities, Intuitivo offers transformative solutions to reclaim educators’ valuable time for impactful teaching.
A Milestone on a Global Stage
The win at Web Summit underscores Intuitivo's vision and commitment to creating meaningful change. Speaking about the experience, Jo?o Guimar?es , Intuitivo's CEO, reflected on the journey:
“The fact we even got to the final means we are gaining a lot of awareness. For us to appear in the news is amazing. We’ve met a lot of other co-founders from around the world and some of the amazing judges. We’re making something that is impactful and that is actually making a change in the world.”
This milestone showcases Intuitivo’s capacity to compete on a global scale, gain recognition, and solidify its place as a leader in the $5B assessment software market.
COREangels Lisbon’s Role in Intuitivo's Success
COREangels Lisbon has been instrumental in supporting Intuitivo’s growth. As one of its key backers, alongside COREangels Lisbon has provided the strategic guidance, funding, and community connections necessary for the startup to achieve significant milestones. COREangels Lisbon’s focus on empowering early-stage startups has allowed companies like Intuitivo to innovate boldly and expand their global footprint.
This victory at Web Summit 2024 is not just a win for Intuitivo but also a reflection of COREangels Lisbon's commitment to nurturing groundbreaking ventures that create a tangible, societal impact.
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Climate Tech Deals & Trends across Europe
COREangels Day
The largest gathering of the COREangels global community happened during Web Summit 2024! Angels, fund leaders and startups connected, celebrating innovation and our shining stars in Lisbon.?
?? Angel Investors Hub
With downloadable and record content, plus a community of angel investors for help and advice, this course is designed to help both new and experienced angel investors make better decisions, reduce risk, and maximize their returns in early-stage startup investments.
Created by expert fund managers who have collectively invested in over 100 startups and scouted more than 7,000 opportunities, this course gives you real-world knowledge you can apply immediately.
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?? Angel Fund Management Course
This self-paced online course equips aspiring fund managers, VCs, and angel investors with the essential skills to effectively manage an angel fund! Offering year-round access, this course provides you with the foundation to create and lead a community of angels investing in a common portfolio of startups.
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?? Angel Fund Launchpad Program
Upon completion of the Angel Fund Management with COREangels Course, the Angel Fund Launchpad Program is your next step! An intensive 10-week project-based training that bridges the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical fund management. The goal of the program is to successfully run the 1st Investment Committee of your fund!
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