How do folks become angel investors? What career path led them to this role? And how old are they? These are the couple of questions in a survey by University of Pennsylvania Wharton Business School professor’s survey as part of a quest to provide a better understanding of who angel investors are and what motivates them.
The survey is part of a partnership between Wharton Entrepreneurship and the Angel Capital Association. Rev1 Ventures’ John Huston Fund for Angel Professionalism is bankrolling the survey. Active, accredited investors can participate confidentially in the benchmark study at TheAmericanAngel.org. Wharton Entrepreneurship will administer and analyze the data.
Marianne Hudson, executive director of ACA, said in a statement: “We believe this study will help identify characteristics of angel investors that have never before been understood…It is critical for entrepreneurs, economic development entities, private market makers, regulators and legislators to understand who angel investors are, in order to drive effective policies to ensure a robust angel investing marketplace and for startups to better access equity capital.”
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Angel investors have an important role to play, but the thinking behind the survey is to add to what’s already known from the Halo Reports and market analysis from the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire.
The 2015 Annual Halo Report found that healthcare deals accounted for 23 percent of angel investment. It also found that angel investment groups with multiple chapters, particularly Keiretsu Forum, dominated other angel investor groups.
In its last full year report, it calculated that women angels represented 26.1 percent of the angel market in 2014, a slight increase from 2013 (19.4 percent) It also found that women-owned ventures made up roughly one-third of the entrepreneurs that were seeking angel capital. Minority angels accounted for 8 percent of angel investors in 2014 and minority-owned firms represented a little more than one-quarter of the entrepreneurs that presented their business concept to angels, the report said.
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