Post by Dr. Friederike Hoffmann

Last week, I sat down with Nicole Herzog — co-founder of b2venture and now SECA - Swiss Private Equity & Corporate Finance Association's Business Angel of the Year 2026 — for a conversation I won't forget. Nicole has been part of b2venture since 2000, when she co-founded what would become b2venture as a spin-off from START Global at the Universität St.Gallen (HSG). Since the beginning, she's backed some of Europe's most ambitious founders — mostly quietly, in the way angel investing usually is. One line from our conversation has stayed with me: "For me, giving back is not optional. That's how an ecosystem actually functions — as a circuit, not a one-way flow." I left the conversation with a much clearer sense of what our angel community is actually built on, and grateful that people like Nicole are willing to make that work visible and encourage new investors to join. Congratulations, Nicole — absolutely deserved.