This October at EBN’s 28^th Annual Congress, startups and entrepreneurs in the sustainable tourism sector from all over Europe were given the opportunity to participate in an Investment Readiness Workshop delivered in partnership with the Creative Accelerators for Sustainable Tourism (CAST) initiative.

Hosted during the EBN Congress at La Nuvola, Rome on 23^rd October, entrepreneurs took part in a hands-on workshop dedicated to early stage equity investment presented by EBN associate member Media Deals, with the support of EBN and fiveEU|BICs, CEEI Burgos, CeeIM, CyRIC, Lazio Innova, and WestBIC, with expertise in sustainable tourism.

The entrepreneurs were provided with training on how to structure an investment pitch presentation, what comes next after attracting financiers’ attention, and about company valuations and the due diligence process. They were further prepared for investment by getting into financiers’ minds to understand what they are looking for and what they expect from startups and SMEs in sustainable tourism while also exploring the different types of equity investment that are suitable for startups in different maturity phases.

Furthermore, the CAST entrepreneurs were given access to the EBN Congress and also had the opportunity to host a stand at the Exhibition Area, with three startups participating and sharing their innovative, sustainable products with Congress attendees.

The workshop and Congress received very positive feedback from the entrepreneurs, with the presentation delivered by Juliane Schulze of Media Deals being described as the highlight of the session by a number of participants.

If you’d like to learn more about CAST and what it has to offer to Startups and SMEs then visit https://castnetwork.eu/ or follow the CAST Twitter @CASTnetworkE.

CAST is co-funded by the European Commission COSME programme and is run by a consortium of ten organisations including EBN, CEEI Burgos, CeeIM, CyRIC, Lazio Innova, Media Deals and WestBIC, all of whom are also EBN members, and two other partners D2S and Creative Business Cup.