Angels Den in Qatar

According to its website Angels Den is a network of 4,000 business angels and 10,000 entrepreneurs. It is organized in every region of the United Kingdom except Northern Ireland plus Hong Kong, Singapore and Qatar.

Angels Den in Qatar has two regional managers, Elaine Gold and Dave Trevena.

Gold has a website and blog on her personal interests with a specific emphasis on living and working in the Middle East. Her latest post is "'Be an Angel' - Invest in Qatar" dated 16 Sept 2011. After explaining what an angel is, the article asks whether the angel model can work in the Gulf.

Trevena is commercial director of Distinction which is part of the Kepco Group that claims to "introduce new ideas and innovative companies, technologies, products and services to the Qatari market place." Distinction's website has articles on Qatar, starting a business in Qatar, finding investment in Qatar through Angels Den and Distinction's services. There is also a blog on Distinction's website with a number of articles by Trevena since 11 Sept 2011.

The Angels Den website has announced two business funding clinics at the Renaissance Hotel in Doha for 29 Sept and 30 Oct 2011.

Any Qatari investor who is minded to become an angel should know something of intellectual property. As good a starting point as any is my primer "What Business Angels and VCs need to know about IP". He or she will need to satisfy him or herself that the business is properly constituted, that there is adequate intellectual property protection in place, that its terms of business, standard contracts and employees' service contracts are robust and that there is full compliance with Qatari and all other applicable laws.

The entrepreneur for his or her part will also need legal advice and representation in negotiating with the angel. Ideally they will draw up a shareholders' agreement with the angel to set out their respective rights and responsibilities.

The Qatar Financial Centre has its own legal system based on the common law with judges from England and other common law jurisdictions (see my articles on the Qatar Financial Centre and the Qatar Financial Centre: Civil and Commercial Court Regulations). Although the Centre's jurisdiction is narrowly defined it should be the jurisdiction of choice in agreements between overseas investors and Qatari nationals wherever possible.

Anyone who wants to discuss any of the topics discussed in this post should get in touch through my contact form.