Factors influencing successful angel investing subject of new initiative

The Angel Capital Association is piloting a new report on the factors that influence successful angel investing and the startups that angels support.  The initial Angel Funders Report covers 2017 data from 26 angel groups and provides new insights for one year of investments. Some of the report’s key findings include:

• Angels invest early and often: while very early stage round financing dominates at 59 percent of angel group deals, 36 percent were in Series A or later rounds, including 13 Series C investments and one Series E.
• Angel groups invest in both their home communities and beyond their local base: while the groups in the report were located in 17 states, their investments were made in companies in their states and an additional 21 states, plus one Canadian province and Israel.
• Angels use a variety of investment structures: many investments were in equity deals, but nearly 36 percent of rounds were convertible notes or SAFEs.
• Syndication is vital for startups and angel groups.
• Angel backed companies have more female CEOs (21 percent) compared to VC-backed companies (2-5 percent according to other reports).
• Angels invest in a variety of industries, but more than two-thirds of the deals were in the tech and life science fields.

While ACA is currently planning to publish two reports a year and then go to a quarterly publication with a larger dataset, they are asking for all ACA member organizations to participate by submitting their 2018 and earlier data. More information is available here.