Top 50 Angel Investors – 2020

main-moderator Jul 5, 2020 | 8985 Views
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An angel investor (also known as a business angelinformal investorangel funderprivate investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. Angel investors usually give support to start-ups at the initial moments (where risks of the start-ups failing are relatively high) and when most investors are not prepared to back them. A small but increasing number of angel investors invest online through equity crowdfunding or organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share investment capital, as well as to provide advice to their portfolio companies. Over the last 50 years, the number of angel investors has greatly increased.

As a founder you want to look for well-connected investors. Great connections are some of the best value that you can ask for as a start-up. If you can get money and connections together that’s a two-for-one not to be passed up. 

Trust and power with the best connections can take years and incredible investment to develop. Investors are guarded well, and for good reason. Yet, sometimes all it takes is the right connection for a start-up to go really huge, really fast. Take any of the panel on the reality TV show Shark Tank, put a product or service into their hands that they can promote through their channels, and it can be an overnight hit.  

It’s the same concept as celebrity sponsorships. If the right celebrity is out there touting, advertising, and recommending your product to the right demographic, business can explode. Of course, most fledgling start-ups can’t afford celebrity sponsorships like Nike or Adidas, at least not in a sustainable way. 

Raising capital from a connected investor flips this equation. You effectively get paid to get promoted. This isn’t just about celebrity product placement or celebrity tweaks, it can mean incredibly powerful retail distribution channels, too. Very well connected investors can always open you the doors to follow on financing rounds, business developments deals, and potential acquisitions.

So, who are the leading angel investors startup entrepreneurs should be pitching right now? How do you connect with them?

Effective fundraising for startups isn’t about how many people and firms you can blast your opportunity out to. It’s about getting in front of the right investors, with a strong pitch deck. A recent DocSend survey shows successfully funded startups contacted an average of just 58 investors, made 40 meetings, and took just 12.5 weeks to close their funding round.

Top 50 Angel Investors by number of Investments

Below are the angels to pitch, with their social profiles to save you time finding them. Below are 50 angels ranked by number of investments made. 

Remember that for a powerful connection, recommendation is to find one of the portfolio companies of these investors and to ask the founder to make an introduction. That is the best type of introduction you can ever get as it includes the highest degree of social proof towards these investors.

S.No Angel Investor No. of Investments Social Profile
1 Fabrice Grinds 245 https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabricegrinda
2 Paul Buchheit 135 https://twitter.com/paultoo?lang=en
3 Wei Guo 129 https://www.linkedin.com/in/wei-guo-b9b76038/
4 Alexis Ohanian 126 https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexisohanian/
5 Scott Banister 126 https://www.linkedin.com/in/banister/
6 Naval Ravikant 121 https://www.linkedin.com/in/navalr/
7 Daniel Curran 114 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dancurran/
8 Marc Benioff 113 https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbenioff/
9 Mark Cuban 110 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-cuban-06a0755b/
10 Simon Murdoch 99 https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonmurdoch/
11 Ron Conway 89 https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-conway-17692953/?locale=en_US
12 Esther Dyson 86 https://www.linkedin.com/in/estherdyson/
13 Kevin Moore 85 https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-a122575/
14 David Tisch 83 https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetisch/
15 Dave McClure 79 https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetisch/
16 Semil Shah 74 https://www.linkedin.com/in/semilshah/
17 Max Levchin 72 https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxlevchin/
18 Jason Calacanis 72 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis/
19 Benajmin Ling 70 https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminling/
20 Brendon Wallace 67 https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanfitzgeraldwallace/
21 Timothy Draper 66 https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothydraper/
22 James Sowers 65 https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-sowers-925a1b17/
23 Auren Hoffman 65 https://www.linkedin.com/in/auren/
24 Lee Linden 64 https://www.linkedin.com/in/lclinden/
25 Joanne Wilson 63 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanne-wilson-b0886110/
26 Farzad Nazem 60 https://www.linkedin.com/in/farzad-zod-nazem-62834816/
27 Jashua Schachter 59 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuaschachter/
28 Garry Tan 59 https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrytan/
29 Rajan Anandan 57 https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajan-anandan-2481b814/
30 Xavier Niel 57 https://www.linkedin.com/in/xavier-niel-7661aa43/?locale=en_US
31 Dave Morin 57 https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemorin/
32 Jose Marin 57 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-marin-093121/
33 Reid Moffman 55 https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman/
34 Keith Rabois 55 https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith/
35 Will Herman 55 https://www.linkedin.com/in/willherman/
36 Scott Belsky 53 https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbelsky/
37 Rick Marini 53 https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickmarini/
38 Charlie Songhurst 52 https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlessonghurst/
39 Hesham Zreik 52 https://www.linkedin.com/in/heshamzreik/?originalSubdomain=ae
40 Bashar Hamood 52 https://www.linkedin.com/in/basharrhamood/?originalSubdomain=ae
41 Bradley Harrison 51 https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradharrison/
42 Gary Vaynerchuk 50 https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyvaynerchuk/
43 Clark Landry 50 https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarklandry/
44 Wayne Chang 50 https://www.linkedin.com/in/waynechang/
45 Dharmesh Shah 50 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dharmesh/
46 Mitch Kapor 50 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchkapor/
47 Ullas Naik 48 https://www.linkedin.com/in/ullasnaik/
48 Raymond Tonsing 48 https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonsing/
49 Kevin Mahaffey 48 https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmahaffey/
50 Elad Gil 45 https://www.linkedin.com/in/eladgil/
Angel Investors By Exits

We all know that venture capital can be a tricky beast. Best exits and timelines are not always concrete when funding happens. Some of the biggest startups with multi-billion dollar valuations, have kept raising money in new rounds, without selling or going public. Those may prove to be some of the best investments in the long term. Yet, it is important for entrepreneurs to know which potential partners have had real success in exits.

Here are the five angel investors, in order of number of exits:

S.No Angel Investor Number of Exits Social Media Profile
1 Fabrice Grinds 48 https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabricegrinda
2 Ron Conway 48 https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-conway-17692953/?locale=en_US
3 Naval Ravikant 38 https://www.linkedin.com/in/navalr/
4 Paul Buchheit 37 https://twitter.com/paultoo?lang=en
5 David Tisch 35 https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetisch/

Ron Conway and Reid Hoffman also have an over 50% exit rate versus the number of investments they’ve made.

Check Sizes and Industries

Angel investors invest their own money, where the typical amount raised ranges from $150,000 to $2,000,000. Since angel investors are very often individuals that have held executive positions at large corporations, they can often provide fantastic advice and introductions to the entrepreneur, in addition to the funds.

A Harvard report provided information on how angel funded start-ups had a higher chance of survival. In fact, as seen on the names listed above many of them are successful serial entrepreneurs.

What angel investors look for is a great team with a good market that could potentially return 10 times their initial investment in a period of 5 years. The exits, or liquidity events, are for the most part via an initial public offering, secondary market transactions, or an acquisition.

According to the Halo Report, angel investors particularly like start-ups operating in the following industries: internet (37.4%), healthcare (23.5%), mobile and telecom (10.4%), energy and utilities (4.3%), electronics (4.3%), consumer products and services (3.5%), and other industries (16.5%).

Data collected by the Kauffman Foundation shows that the best estimate for angel investor returns is 2.5 times their investment even though the odds of a positive return are less than 50%, which is absolutely competitive with venture capital returns.

The dominating geographic area, in terms of number of angel investments, is Silicon Valley, however, Silicon Alley is catching up quickly.

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Main Moderator Mar 23rd, 2021
Thank You Pauline and helping our readers. Please share your details & also share your credentials on mktg.dept@witanworld.com. We want to discuss how you can contribute to the growth of Witanworld.
Pauline Vennell Mar 12th, 2021
looking for an angel investor to help with start up .... for information please contact... potential for multiple fields of investments and tax advantage

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