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Business angels – Giving ideas wings

Entrepreneurs can struggle to raise the first million or so, even with a good idea. But a business angel might smile on them

IN AUGUST 2003 Skype released the first version of its software, which allows people to make free voice and video calls over the internet. The company had raised its seed capital only a year before from a group of private investors, who had later been joined by venture-capital funds. It was a remarkable investment. In September 2005 Skype was bought by eBay for €2.1billion ($2.6 billion). The deal made its Scandinavian founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, millionaires many times over. For their part, the earliest investors saw a huge return, 350 times or so, on their estimated €2m investment.

Full Story: http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7905466

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