Angel House is founded by Lisa Grape, Ash Pournouri and Andreas Grape, the team behind Nordic Angels. Positioned as the physical counterpart to the digital platform, the new club is designed to facilitate long-term relationships, curated programming and spontaneous interactions among investors. We spoke with CEO Lisa Grape about the ambitions behind the initiative, the role of culture in investor communities and how Angel House plans to shape the Nordic innovation landscape.
What gap does Angel House address that digital investor networks cannot?
– Angel House has around thirty angels who have invested in making the club possible, and Nordic Angels is one of those owners. The gap Angel House fills is the need for a high trust physical place where angels can meet and enjoy spending time with their peers. It is a place designed for meaningful conversations, curated gatherings and spontaneous meetings that digital platforms have hard to compete with. Everyone is vouched for and accountability applies through a committee. This goes for both Nordic Angels online platforms but also Angel House. When High Trust is incorporated you see the guards go down and trust level rises.
Which innovation areas do you expect to gain the most from a physical gathering point for investors?
– When we bring together influential angels who spend their time, effort, capital and networks in helping others, all in an environment they appreciate – magic happens. We know from experience that it works that way and we continuously curate themes for our members, be it interests in AI, energy, fashion tech, health tech, gaming or whatever comes next. The strength of the community lies in its mindset — angels who go beyond capital to open doors, connect entrepreneurs with experts and clients, and offer meaningful advice.
Fashion tech is accelerating in the Nordics. How do you see Angel House supporting investors and founders in this space?
– Our members have different interests and of course some of them are interested in fashion tech. We can act as a hub for these different interests and let our members decide what is relevant. If they want to invite their fashion tech portfolio companies to pitch to the club members, that can be an opportunity to bring in more angels who are interested in that area. The same goes for any vertical that might be relevant for our members. Everything we do should create value for the members. With that said the members can use the club to display relevant tech, fashion, art as long as the other members appreciate it.”
How will you curate members and programming to foster real deal flow, not just social interaction?
– We have an experienced team around us and strong partners within corporate and lifestyle, as well as Founding Members. Andreas and Ash have already shown with gatherings like Angel Prize and a Luncheon concept that curated themes in the right environment drive real deal flow. At Angel House we can deepen this. The club has a state of the art stage, sound system and a two by four meter times two LED wall, which allows us to curate everything from artist performances to pitch days, luncheons and private dinners. We also receive many inquiries from international delegations coming to Sweden and we’re happy to be able to host them at an international standard. When the environment is right the conversations naturally move toward investments.”
What was the design brief for the interior, and how should the space support conversations?
– We did not want the dark interiors often found in members’ clubs. Sweden has a few months of brightness and a lot of darkness the rest of the year, so we wanted a place that still feels light even in November. With a vision where the new members’ club feels like a second home – warm, inviting and personal. The space should encourage calm, relaxed conversations and make people want to stay longer. We also wanted a bar that sets the standard. Beautiful, welcoming and timeless. The kind of place our members actually want to spend time in, even outside of meetings. The bar is hand made and built in Småland, in the south of Sweden.”
Why integrate food, art and music into an investor-focused environment?
– Our members already enjoy many of the good things in life. Culture, food, art and music are important parts of their lives. We built this into a high trust environment where everything connects naturally. We can’t wait to show what’s cooking:)
Where do you want Angel House to be in three years?
– To be the most relevant place for our audience, where business is encouraged and where our members feel safe to do deals and the top of mind place to do and celebrate businesses being made. We will be present in several Nordic countries as a concept where a Nordic angel will always have a place to meet peers to do business and enjoy time with.”
