Investor & Startup News from Dealum

​[[{"value":" Dealum is excited to announce a new partnership with the African Business Angel Network (ABAN), a pan-African association dedicated to building and connecting early-stage investor networks across the continent. Founded in 2015, ABAN connects more than 5,000 business angel investors through over 75 member networks spanning 37 African countries and the diaspora, making it one of Africa’s most influential early-stage investment communities. By supporting collaboration between investor groups, promoting best practices, and strengthening cross-border investment activity, ABAN plays a central role in developing the continent’s early-stage financing infrastructure and expanding access to capital for high-growth startups. Africa’s startup ecosystem has grown rapidly over the past decade, driven by rising cross-border investment and an increasing number of angel networks backing early-stage founders. However, many investor groups still rely on fragmented tools and manual workflows, limiting...

​[[{"value":" ICAN, the International Collegiate Angels Network, connects investors with campus-born ventures. This means startups founded by current students, faculty members, or recent alumni, where the idea emerged through coursework, research, or campus activity. ICAN operates globally and mobilizes capital for this promising – but often overlooked – asset class.  The network aims to solve two problems at once: founders can access early capital from investors who understand university innovation, and universities can participate in long-term value creation without directly holding equity. As a way to keep the flywheel turning, ICAN returns 10% of any realized gains to the campuses where the ventures originated. A path to campus innovation “that just kind of happened”  ICAN was founded by Tom Duening, an entrepreneur and educator with more than 35 years of experience in early-stage startups and university innovation programs. Tom’s path to founding ICAN was neither planned nor conventional. He started...

​[[{"value":" On 29 January 2026 at Startup Day in Tartu, Kerli Luks (Muun Health) and Terje Eichelmann (Lightcode Photonics) discussed one of the hardest problems in fundraising: how to explain highly complex, science-heavy products to investors. The seminar was moderated by Seren Rumjancevs (Dealum).  Kerli and Terje both represent deep-tech and health-tech companies where the technology is novel, the timelines are long, and the risks are high – exactly the situations where founders most often “lose” their audience. Through practical experience, the speakers showed how to simplify without dumbing down, how to adapt to different investor profiles, and how to shift the pitch from explaining how something works to proving why it matters.  5 things most new founders get wrong Kerli didn’t start with a business idea but a clinical frustration. As a medical doctor, she saw in everyday practice how little real-time data exists about female hormones and how under-researched and underfunded women’s health still...

​[[{"value":" The partnership brings together Dealum's community of early-stage startups with Freshmango's expertise in startup acceleration, offering founders structured learning and mentorship without equity dilution. Freshmango and Dealum are joining forces to give early-stage founders more options when it comes to accelerating their businesses, on their own terms, without giving up equity. While traditional accelerators have long been the go-to path for early-stage startups seeking structure, mentorship, and investor access, many founders are now looking for alternatives that don't require them to trade ownership for guidance. This partnership addresses that gap by connecting Dealum's community of founders with Freshmango's proven acceleration methodology. Through this collaboration, founders using Dealum's platform will be able to access the knowledge and structured learning typically available through traditional accelerator programs, while maintaining full control of their equity and moving at a pace...

​[[{"value":" Founders pour countless hours into preparing for investor conversations. They polish their pitch deck, refine their one-liner, and rehearse answers to every possible question. But one critical asset is often treated as an afterthought: their Dealum profile. What many founders miss is how investors actually work. When they look for new opportunities, they don’t start with meetings. They start by scanning startup profiles on Dealum to research, shortlist, and decide which teams are worth a closer look. Even investors who never meet you in person may still evaluate your company based solely on what they see there. Your profile isn't just a form you filled out to get accepted. It's your pitch to investors who are deciding right now whether to book a meeting with you, or skip you entirely. Most founders treat their Dealum profile like paperwork. One-sentence answers. Copy-pasted buzzwords from the pitch deck. Submitted just to check the box. Then comes the frustration when follow-ups don’t happen....

​[[{"value":" Angel group name: Daring Capital Region: United Kingdom Founded: 2023 Member count: ~30 Using Dealum: since September 2025 Website: https://www.daringcapital.co.uk/ The challenge: one too many tools and too much friction  Daring Capital is a two-year-old angel syndicate bringing together impact-driven investors and underrepresented founders. With almost 30 active members and around £2.5M raised across 16 companies, they focus on backing startups that make the world a better place. They’re growing quickly – but their workflow wasn’t keeping up. They used Airtable for startup-related processes and another platform for investor management. This meant keeping data in two places and needing to update both tools manually, which took time and created mistakes. Investor experience was the biggest headache. The investor management platform’s interface was clunky, and even logging in was difficult – the investors couldn’t use their email and had to remember a username. If they forgot it (and often did),...

​[[{"value":" Raising capital has never been simple for early-stage founders. The pressure to build a compelling pitch, identify the right investors, maintain outreach momentum, and still run the company creates a uniquely draining marathon. But according to Brigitte Baumann, founder of efino.ai and one of Europe’s most respected angel investors, a structural shift is underway, and AI is already quietly changing how both founders and investors operate. This became clear during a recent webinar hosted by Dealum, where Brigitte unpacked the realities of AI-driven fundraising from both sides of the table. Her message was straightforward: the change is real, but uneven. Investors are adopting AI faster than founders; the biases built into these tools are significant, and the human element is still far from replaceable. Investors are using AI earlier, deeper and more aggressively One of Brigitte’s key observations was that investors have embraced AI tools more quickly than founders themselves. Venture firms, she...

​[[{"value":" They're not entirely wrong; AI agents are indeed the next frontier, with venture capital pouring $2.8 billion into AI agent startups in 2025 alone. But building a functioning AI agent startup is less like conducting a symphony and more like herding cats who occasionally hallucinate, cost you a fortune per conversation, and get stuck in infinite loops. Here's your field manual for what not to do. When "helpful assistant" isn't helpful Perhaps the most common mistake is believing that your AI agent will simply "figure things out." This is akin to hiring a brilliant new employee, giving them a desk and a computer, and expecting them to grasp your entire business strategy through osmosis. One developer who built over 300 agents candidly admits their initial system prompt said "You are a helpful assistant that can email people, create docs, and other operational tasks." The result? An agent that was about as useful as a chocolate teapot. The uncomfortable truth is that agents are still powered by...

​[[{"value":" The real engine is something far less glamorous, but far more powerful: tax relief for early-stage investors. SEIS & EIS tax relief schemes for angel investments More than 90% of all angel investments in the UK are made under the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). These schemes incentivise UK-based investors to strategically and systematically back risky young companies – by offering tax relief both on the amounts they invest and on their losses if a startup fails. Founders can access money that simply would not exist without tax relief.  Investors can reduce risk enough to make early innovation a rational asset class, not a charity or gamble.  This predictable, government-backed incentive has made the UK one of the most consistently liquid early-stage markets in the world. And shows to policy-makers that tax incentives – when engineered well – can generate a sustained flywheel of innovation.  What types of companies can you invest in under...

​ I’ve spent my first few months at Dealum deep in conversations with angel investors — not pitching or in founder mode, but really listening. It’s been fascinating hearing what they actually need to understand how their portfolio companies are performing. And honestly? It made me realise how much I got wrong as an angel-backed founder myself. Hearing their perspectives revealed some key things I’d do differently now to improve the success outcomes for them and for me. Here are some of those lessons. 1️⃣ Ask about their strategy and motivation upfront They picked you for a reason — but not all angels invest for the same reason. Well before their money hits your account, understand: Are they backing you or the company? Are they sector specialists or generalists? Are you a small bet in a big portfolio, or a relatively big first-time bet for a new angel? Knowing personal motivations early helps you nurture the right relationships. Some angels are founder-focused — they want to be relevant, involved, and will...