The Best 17 Angel Investment Groups compared to VC funds

How would angel groups compare if we evaluate them against the criteria used by CBInsights’ Insights data to evaluate VC funds ?

The angel investment groups that made it to this list collectively have invested 55% of all deals since 2011 in Healthcare and Internet. Their investments in those 2 sectors were spread across 1100 deals with rounds totaling over $2.7B.

But what is an Angel Investment group ?

Let's start with the angel investor ...

An angel Investor or angel (sometimes known as a business angel) is an individual that provides capital for a startup, in return of instant equity (ownership equity shares) or a future promise to receive equity (convertible notes that would convert to ownership equity based on milestones).

Angels typically invest their own funds, unlike VCs who manage pooled money of others -Limited Partners (LPs) - in a professionally-managed VC fund.

Angel investors are often retired entrepreneurs or executives, who may be interested in angel investing for reasons that are not restricted to financial returns. They might sometimes be interested in staying in touch with the current developments in a specific domain, or mentoring a different generation of entrepreneurs to stimulate their thinking, or making use of their experience, contacts and networks on a much less than full-time basis.

An increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share research and pool their investment capital, as well as to provide a wider range of support to their portfolio companies, and sometimes to rub shoulders against other angel investors :)

Those Angel investment groups , can operate with a legal structure of a Trust , Limited Liability Company, a Club / Association, Investment Fund , or any of list of other legally viable vehicles.

To be able to compile the best 17 list below, CBInsights looked at 370 angel groups that have made at least one investment over the past two years, then took into account factors such as past performance, network strength (who they know), selection aptitude and brand among other factors, and quantifies those factors to score and quantitatively rank angel investor groups.

Here goes the list :

1. Life Science Angels
2. Queen City Angels
3. Boston Harbor Angels
4. Atlanta Technology Angels
5. Tech Coast Angels
6. Band of Angels
7. Pasadena Angels
8. Upstate Carolina Angel Network
9. Launchpad Angel Group
10. Keiretsu Forum
11. Golden Seeds
12. Central Texas Angel Network
13. The Angels's Forum
14. Sand Hill Angels
15. NewYork Angels
16. TiE Angels
17. Desert Angels

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About : Rami Al-Karmi is an LP & Mentor at 500 startups, a proud geek, investor, and widely recognized advisor and expert in strategy, lean startup ecosystems, business models, growth & distribution through big data and viral marketing, and corporate venturing.

In 2013, he founded Arcoten Holdings as his advising/investing vehicle where he partners with corporates, accelerators, and incubators to build lean startup ecosystems, and helps companies through providing expertise in growth, hands-on mentorship, access to capital, and helps companies iterate product and grow fast. From time to time, he also likes to build companies with friends and partners inside Arcoten.

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