Access to funding is often mentioned in meetings about how to enable
high impact entrepreneurship. We are always reminded that bank lending
to small businesses remains tight. Even loans subsidized by the Small
Business Administration have dropped off in recent months. Venture
capital was prominent historically for its role in financially
catalyzing high-growth companies, but has over the years become less
significant in spurring entrepreneurship. In recent years (1997-2007)
even among those that made it to the Inc. 500 list of the
fastest-growing private companies, less than one-in-five companies had venture investors.
So what are angel investors up to this summer?
Syndication in angel investment is a hot topic of debate lately, even among angels themselves who discussed it in May at the 2010 Angel Capital Association's (ACA) annual Summit along with earlier exits, angel/VC co-investment and working with new early stage incubators and accelerators. According to the Angel Capital Education Foundation (ACEF), syndication is about more than just pooling funds. Angel groups make due diligence more manageable and enable education and coaching, which can attract many more potential investors into the angel capital market. The negative side is that some see syndication as having made many angels groups “cliquey” and has arguably decreased the variety of investments.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Tracking Early Stage Investors - Entrepreneurship.org
Author: Jonathan Ortmans is president of the Public Forum Institute, a non-partisan organization dedicated to fostering dialogue on important policy issues. In this capacity, he leads the Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, focused on public policies to promote entrepreneurship in the U.S. and around the world. In addition, he serves as a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation.
