Albania
ESIL Angel: Endri Bahja
Bio at a glance
The CEO of EXINN Technology Center in Albania, Endri Bahja, is a certified Strategic Innovation Technology Auditor & Manager and a certified Business Mentor for start-ups. His latest assignments include the Balkans Regional Manager for FinnoLux, Luxembourg and Entrepreneur in Residence for Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Program in Rotterdam. He is a former Innovation Management Assessor and Trainer for DG EASME, and was a Business Development Account Manager for Innogreen Holland Technologies. He has directed the business development of organizations during periods of tremendous growth, and has a deep understanding of how implementations and business functions impact organizational change.
He holds a MBA degree in Corporate Strategy and Economic Policy from Maastricht School of Management as a Fellow of the Netherlands Fellowship Programme; a Bachelor of Arts degree (with Honours) in International Business Management from Oxford Brookes University in UK; and an Executive Diploma in Food Security in an Urbanising Society from Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands.
Works at
EXINN Technology Center
EXINN Technology Center is a research, development and innovation enterprise. It offers access to finance services to micro, start-ups, small and medium companies as well as investment management consulting services to private and public companies. EXINN’s work is related with the development of proof of concepts, laboratory research, experimental product/service design, prototype testing, scientific and field research for small, medium and large enterprises.
Catch up with Endri
"The early stage investment scene in Albania right now is very blurry, but there is a lot going on".
Early stage investing in Albania today:
- It is very blurry, there is a lot of things going underground.
- People are investing but there is no implementation
- At this moment the early stage investing scheme is not structured or formalised.
My goals in Albania
- Structure and formalize the market.
- Create and raise awareness of the benefits of the ESIL and EUROQUITY platform in the local and national level amongst investors.
- Improve the Albanian angel investment market by nurturing and activating at least 15-20 successful angel investors.
- Create, find and execute cross border investment opportunities amongst the regional angel investors’ communities.
- Create at least 5 sustainable and successful deals in the next two years.
- Connect with some of the most relevant network like in Macedonia, Greece, Italy and Serbia.
- Build and perform monthly training programme for local ecosystems of entrepreneurs, angel investors, start-ups, SMEs etc.
