Angels Sing as a Chorus

The Tacoma Angel Network confirms through its participation in the first-ever Angel Capital Association Confidence Survey that investment levels will exceed 2006 levels.

In the ACA (not a funding organization) Confidence Report earlier this year, angel groups belonging to the association forecast that the quantity and quality of entrepreneurial investment proposals in the coming year would surpass 2006 levels. A mid-year check by the ACA shows that those predictions were not just pioedreams. Fifty percent of survey respondents expressed that their group’s deal flow had continued to increase in quality and quantity during the first six months of 2007, and most of the remaining respondents said that deal flow was similar to 2006.

Angel groups were also optimistic about their relationships with venture capitalists. A majority of angel group leaders (73.7%) thought that their relationships with venture capitalists (VCs) had improved in the last three years. Reasons given for the improved relationship with VCs included:

• market segmentation
• increased understanding about their respective roles in early and later-stage financing
• better deal structuring
• good company referrals

Forty-four percent of the angel groups in the survey have established partnerships with VC firms to expedite co-investments or follow-on investments to help close any capital gap.