What is an Angel Investor?
An angel investor is an individual investor who often invests their own money in startups in return for equity, a SAFE or a convertible note. Angel investors usually invest earlier than most venture capital firms and often write checks ranging from $50K to $250K per startup at the pre-seed or seed stage.
Many angel investors are accredited investors, high-net-worth individuals, former startup founders, executives, operators or professionals. They can be doctors, lawyers, accountants, entrepreneurs or people from many other professions. Some invest independently, while others invest through angel groups, syndicates or their own personal deal flow.
Angel investors know that startup investing is risky. They are usually willing to accept higher risk than traditional lenders because they are looking for startups with the potential to grow quickly, disrupt existing markets or create new ones.
How to use this Angel Investors List
Raising money from angel investors is easier when you start with a focused list instead of a generic list of investors.
You can use the Angel Match investor investory to filter angel investors by industry, country, state, city and investment stage. This helps you build a custom list of investors who match your business.
Start with your industry. If you are building an AI startup, you can search for angel investors who invest in AI, B2B, SaaS, blockchain or other related categories. If you are building a FinTech, Health Care, E-commerce, Consumer Internet or another startup, type the keywords that best match your startup’s industry under the “Markets” filter.
Next, filter by location and investment stage. Some angel investors invest globally and others focus on specific countries, states or cities. The largest number of angel investors in the Angel Match database are based in the United States, but founders outside the US can also reach out to US-based angel investors if the investor’s focus matches their business.
Once you build a list of relevant investors, you can add them one by one or bulk select them into your Fundraising CRM. From there, you can export your list as a CSV or start your investor outreach using the Angel Match Email Outreach tool.
How to Find Angel Investors for Your Startup
There are many ways you can find angel investors for your startup.
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Angels often post on LinkedIn and X saying something along the lines of, “Pitch your startup in the comments below, and I will select 3–5 startups to invest in.” You can also follow angel investors who invest in your niche, engage with their posts for a certain period of time, and then direct message them saying you run a startup and asking if they would be interested in learning more.
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You can use investor database products, Excel spreadsheets, or LinkedIn to do cold investor outreach.
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You can join startup communities and see if other founders can refer you to potential angel investors.
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You can also use your own network to ask if someone can introduce you to potential angel investors.
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You can join startup accelerators and incubators where they already have a network of angel investors who see pitches either on demo days or through networking events.
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You can reach out to angel groups that invest in your niche.
The best and most efficient way to raise money from angel investors is usually through your own network. But not every founder has a strong network, especially first-time founders. If you’re one of them, you can still build a targeted angel investor list of people who are relevant to your niche and who already invest in your startup’s industry, stage, and location. Then you can reach out to them directly.
What Angel Investors Look for
Angel investors usually look at the founder, team, product, market, traction and ability to execute before investing.
At the earliest stages such as at pre-seed or seed, they normally do not expect strong revenue or product-market fit, but they still want to see a clear problem, a credible solution and signs that the founders know how to reach the next milestone.
How to Contact Angel Investors
Before contacting angel investors, make sure your list consists of investors who focus on your niche, stage and location. If you reach out to random investors, you’ll get ignored more often or receive more “not a good fit” replies.
Your first email should be concise and clear. Explain what you are building, who it is for, what problem it solves and what traction or proof you have so far. You don’t need to pitch your entire business in the first email. The goal of your first email is to give the investor one reason to want to learn more.
If possible, attach or link to your pitch deck and executive summary. If an investor does not reply, follow up after a few days. If they still don’t reply, follow up again a few days later. A lot of investor conversations happen because of follow-ups, not the first email.
Angel Investors vs Venture Capital Investors
Angel investors and VC investors both invest in startups, but they are not the same.
Angel investors usually invest their own funds. They often invest at earlier stages, write smaller checks ranging from $50K to $500K and may make decisions faster than venture capital firms.
Venture capital investors usually invest money from a fund. They invest less often, but usually write much larger checks. They also tend to have stricter due diligence and a more formal investment process.
Many founders raise from both. A pre-seed or seed round may include a few angel investors and one or two VC investors.
Seed investors
