AngelList

Last updated

AngelList
AngelList logo.svg
AngelList's logo
Type of site
 Entrepreneurship, Startups, Investments
Available in English
No. of locations3
OwnerVenture Hacks, Inc.
Founder(s) Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi
CEOAvlok Kohli
Subsidiaries Product Hunt, Republic, CoinList, Wellfound, Belltower Fund
URL angellist.com
CommercialYes
LaunchedApril 22, 2010;13 years ago (2010-04-22) in San Francisco, CA
AngelList co-founder, Naval Ravikant Naval Ravikant in 2011.jpg
AngelList co-founder, Naval Ravikant

AngelList is a U.S. website for fundraising and connecting startups, angel investors, and limited partners. [1] [2] Founded in 2010, it started as an online introduction board for tech startups that needed seed funding. [3] Since 2015, the site allows startups to raise money from angel investors free of charge. [3] [4] Created by serial entrepreneur Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi in 2010, Avlok Kohli has been leading AngelList as its CEO since 2019. [5]

Contents

History

AngelList was founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi. Using the traction from the Venture Hack blog on entrepreneur financing, Naval and Babak started a list of 25 investors with whom they would share interesting companies to invest in. [1] They announced the list as "AngelList" in 2010, with the subscription of 50 angel investors who intended to invest USD $80 million that year. [6] [7]

Mission and operations

Business Insider dubbed AngelList the "Match.com for investors and startups". [8] In a recent interview, Naval Ravikant wants more "innovation on [the] infrastructure for innovation itself" by helping startups with money, talent, and customers. [9]

AngelList's Syndicate facilitates startup financing with accredited investors. AngelList Jobs, later rebranded as Wellfound, connect talents with startups, with over 35,000 recruiting companies, more than 2,000,000 candidates and 5 million registered users. [10] [11] AngelList's acquisition of Product Hunt will allow more support for startups with customer generation and product launch. [12] [13] [10] AngelList Syndicates allow startups to raise money from accredited investors investing alongside prominent angel investors. [14] [15] [16] [17]

History

AngelList launched Jobs – its recruiting portal – in 2012. [18] [19]

In late 2012, AngelList launched a portal for accelerators and incubators to accept and manage applications from startups to their programs. [20] At opening, AngelList accepted applications for 500 Startups, TechStars Boston, and AngelPad. Other accelerators, like Rock Health, accept applications exclusively through AngelList. [1] [21] [22]

In 2013, AngelList received a no-action letter from the SEC, allowing the operations of its Syndicates platform. FundersClub also received such a letter in the same period. [23] [24] AngelList Syndicates was noted as one of the most important innovations in the venture capital and angel investment industries, getting momentum with several well-known figures in the tech community creating syndicates, including Jason Calacanis, Scott Banister, Tim Ferriss, Gil Penchina, Scott and Cyan Banister, Fabrice Grinda, Elad Gil and more. [25] [26] In 2017, AngelList had 4,400 investors operating across 165 syndicates.

In March 2014, AngelList launched Maiden Lane, a first online venture fund for investing in syndicated deals. [25] It was launched with more than $25 million in funding from a variety of investors. [27] [28] [29] In 2014, women represented only 7.4% of all AngelList investors. [30]

In October 2015, AngelList announced a deal with a Chinese third-largest private equity firm CSC (China Science & Merchants Investment Management Group) for establishing a new $400 million fund for early-stage startup investments. [31] [32] According to The Wall Street Journal , the deal became the "largest single pool of funds devoted to early-stage startups — ever," and also the "largest-ever single investment by a Chinese private-equity firm in a U.S. fund." [31] [32]

Prior to the deal, the Wall Street Journal said AngelList "had raised $205 million from all sources, including $43 million from institutional investors." [32]

In July 2016, AngelList launched Republic - a spinoff addressing the democratization of startup equity crowdfunding with non-accredited investors. [33] [9]

In November 2016, AngelList acquired Product Hunt for $20 million. [12] [13] [10] Naval Ravikant planned to use Product Hunt to further "[help] companies find their early customers." [9]

In October 2017, CoinList – initial coin offering services for startups and accredited investors – spun off from AngelList. [34] At the end of 2017 AngelList had profiles of over 70,000 startups. [35]

In early 2018, AngelList expanded its Syndicates program to India. [36]

In 2020, AngelList launched rolling funds, an investment vehicle that raises money through a quarterly subscription from interested investors. [37] In the same year, AngelList India's CEO, Utsav Somani, launched a $5 million micro-fund, iSeed SEA, to invest in startups located in Southeast Asia. [38] [39]

In 2021, AngelList raised $25 million for the AngelList Early Stage Quant Fund, an investment vehicle which plans to invest $250,000 in over 100 companies. [40]

In March 2022, AngelList closed its $100 million Series B led by Tiger Global. One month later, the company raised another bridge round of $44 million. [41]

In November 2022, AngelList Talent was spun out as a separate company and rebranded as Wellfound. [42] [43]

In June 2023, AngelList announced its acquisition of Nova, an investor management software for institutional private funds. The purchase supported CEO Avlok Kohli's initiative to expand AngelList's customer base to include private equity. [44]

Involvement in the JOBS Act

In mid-2012, Naval Ravikant and Kevin Laws, AngelList's chief operating officer, [45] were active in Washington in his support for the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act), a law that eased many of the United States' securities regulations with the aim of making it easier for companies to either go public or to remain private longer while continuing to raise capital. [46] [6] [47] He was in discussion with "Senate and Congressional staffers, Steve Case, and influential Congressmen who would listen." [48] During the same period, he organized an online petition that attracted 5,000 signatures on a letter to Senate leaders in support of the Act. [6] [49] Later in 2013, Naval Ravikant wrote a letter to the SEC to object to changes in the JOBS Act that he believed "could create disastrous unintended consequences for the startup community." [50]

Related Research Articles

Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term seed suggests that this is a very early investment, meant to support the business until it can generate cash of its own, or until it is ready for further investments. Seed money options include friends and family funding, seed venture capital funds, angel funding, and crowdfunding.

A series A round is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchange for their investment. It is usually the first series of stock after the common stock and common stock options issued to company founders, employees, friends and family and angel investors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index Ventures</span> European worldwide venture capital firm

Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/AI, and security. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has invested in a number of companies and raised approximately $5.6 billion. Index Venture partners appear frequently on Forbes’ Midas List of the top tech investors in Europe and Israel.

An angel investor is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. Angel investors often provide support to startups at a very early stage, once or in a consecutive manner, and when most investors are not prepared to back them. In a survey of 150 founders conducted by Wilbur Labs, about 70% of entrepreneurs will face potential business failure, and nearly 66% will face this potential failure within 25 months of launching their company. 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 and provide advice to their portfolio companies. The number of angel investors has greatly increased since the mid-20th century.

Andreessen Horowitz is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of April 2023, Andreessen Horowitz ranks first on the list of venture capital firms by assets under management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indiegogo</span> American crowdfunding website

Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows people to solicit funds for an idea, charity, or start-up business. Indiegogo charges a 5% fee on contributions. This charge is in addition to Stripe credit card processing charges of 3% + $0.30 per transaction. Fifteen million people visit the site each month.

Adzuna is a search engine for job advertisements. The company operates in 19 countries worldwide and the UK website aggregates job ads from several thousand sources.

Seedrs is an online equity crowdfunding company, headquartered in East London's Tech City, founded in 2009 and launched by Jeff Lynn and Carlos Silva in 2012. Since 2022 it has been a subsidiary of American crowdfunding company Republic.

CircleUp is a financial technology company based in San Francisco that focuses on consumer goods startups. Since its official launch in April 2012, CircleUp has helped several consumer companies raise equity, including Back to the Roots, Halo Top Creamery, Little Duck Organics, Rhythm Superfoods and others. General Mills has an investment fund that is partnered with CircleUp to invest in companies listed on the platform.

MicroVentures is an equity crowdfunding website offering investments in early stage companies. MicroVentures connects accredited investors with startups, businesses and services looking to raise funds or participate in select secondary market opportunities. It is the only major equity crowdfunding site that is a broker-dealer registered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the first to take a portfolio company to a successful exit. As of October 2013, MicroVentures had raised $20 million, spread among 45 companies including Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OwnLocal</span> American digital advertising startup

OwnLocal is an Austin, Texas-based digital advertising startup founded in 2010.

Wefunder is an online service which allows individual investors to crowdfund startup companies. Wefunder uses a provision in the 2012 JOBS Act which allows unaccredited investors to purchase equity in early stage private companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naval Ravikant</span> Indian-American entrepreneur and investor

Naval Ravikant is an Indian-American entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder, chairman and former CEO of AngelList. He has invested early-stage in over 200 companies including Uber, FourSquare, Twitter, Wish.com, Poshmark, Postmates, Thumbtack, Notion, SnapLogic, Opendoor, Clubhouse, Stack Overflow, Bolt, OpenDNS, Yammer, and Clearview AI, with over 70 total exits and more than 10 Unicorn companies.

SeedInvest is an equity crowdfunding platform that connects startups with investors online. The company was founded in 2012 and launched in 2013. SeedInvest has focused on building liquidity in the platform by attracting high-net-worth individuals, family offices and venture capital firms. SeedInvest screens and vets deals before allowing them to take advantage of the JOBS Act exemption permitting General Solicitation. In September 2014 the company launched a partnership with Angel Investing website Gust. In October 2018, SeedInvest was acquired by peer-to-peer payment company Circle Internet Financial Ltd.

Onevest, a New York–based investment crowdfunding site for startups that was acquired by Business Rockstars in April 2018, allowed entrepreneurs to raise capital from accredited investors. In July 2014, startups launching on Onevest had collectively raised over $66 million.

SyndicateRoom is a UK venture capital fund, headquartered in Cambridge, founded by Gonçalo de Vasconcelos and Tom Britton in September 2013. The company is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Equity crowdfunding is the online offering of private company securities to a group of people for investment and therefore it is a part of the capital markets. Because equity crowdfunding involves investment into a commercial enterprise, it is often subject to securities and financial regulation. Equity crowdfunding is also referred to as crowdinvesting, investment crowdfunding, or crowd equity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gigster</span> American dot-com company

Gigster provides a service that allows users to get tech projects built on demand. It was co-founded by Roger Dickey and Debo Olaosebikan and based in San Francisco, California. They received seed funding from Greylock Partners, Bloomberg Beta, as well as notable angel investors and founders Naval Ravikant of AngelList, Justin Waldron of Zynga, and Emmett Shear of Twitch, among others. They were a part of Y-Combinator's Summer 2015 class.

Groundfloor is an American real estate investing and lending marketplace. It was the first real estate crowdfunding company to achieve SEC qualification utilizing Regulation A+ since the regulation became operable through the JOBS Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republic (fintech)</span> American crowdfunding broker

Republic is an investment platform headquartered in New York City that allows individuals to invest in startups, growth-stage pre-IPO companies, real estate, video games, and crypto companies.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Davidson, Andrew (May 17, 2013). "Follow the money: AngelList has blown open early-stage investments". WIRED. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  2. ↑ Stone, Brad (January 17, 2014). "AngelList, the Social Network for Startups". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  3. 1 2 Primack, Dan (November 13, 2014). "A disruptor shakes up angel investing". Fortune. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  4. ↑ Hardy, Quentin (March 31, 2015). "Angel Investors Lend Expertise as Well as Cash". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  5. ↑ "AngelList CEO Avlok Kohli on the Transforming the Company — and Venture Itself | Acquired Podcast". www.acquired.fm. Retrieved September 7, 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 Halperin, Alex (March 24, 2014). "Silicon Valley's Avenging Angel". Fast Company. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  7. ↑ Carter, Stinson (October 25, 2016). "A Day in the Life of Naval Ravikant". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  8. ↑ Gobry, Pascal-Emmanuel (November 2, 2011). "The Way Companies Are Getting Financed Is Completely Changing". Business Insider. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 Loizos, Connie (May 19, 2017). "Naval Ravikant hints at future plans for Product Hunt and adding secondary trading to AngelList – TechCrunch". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  10. 1 2 3 Konrad, Alex (December 1, 2016). "AngelList Acquires Popular Tech Discovery Site Product Hunt To Go After Startup Jobs Search". Forbes. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  11. ↑ "angel.co/build-your-team". AngelList. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
  12. 1 2 Geron, Tomio (December 19, 2016). "Angels Muscling In on VC Turf". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  13. 1 2 Wagner, Kurt (December 1, 2016). "AngelList has acquired Product Hunt for around $20 million". Recode. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  14. ↑ Eldon, Eric (July 28, 2013). "Angels Get Carry For Helping A Startup Raise Money With AngelList Syndicates – TechCrunch". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  15. ↑ Carlson, Nicholas (September 30, 2013). "The Startup Investing World Got Turned On Its Head Over The Weekend, And VCs Are Freaking Out". Business Insider. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  16. ↑ Willis, Tyler (June 29, 2014). "An angel investor's ultimate guide to AngelList Syndicates". VentureBeat. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  17. ↑ Baehr, Evan (January 23, 2016). "Profit From A Profile On AngelList – TechCrunch". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  18. ↑ Sloan, Paul (September 5, 2012). "AngelList attacks another startup pain point: Legal fees". CNET. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  19. ↑ Terdiman, Daniel (August 16, 2012). "AngelList launches talent recruiting portal". CNET. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  20. ↑ Griffith, Erin (November 16, 2012). "AngelList now powering applications for incubators like TechStars Boston, AngelPad". Pando. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  21. ↑ Rao, Leena (February 26, 2013). "Startup Accelerator Rock Health Now Accepts Applications Exclusively Through AngelList – TechCrunch". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  22. ↑ Hoque, Faisal (January 15, 2016). "Do Accelerators And Incubators Serve Themselves Better Than Startups?". Fast Company. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  23. ↑ Lawler, Ryan (March 31, 2013). "As Crowdfunding Takes Off, SEC Greenlights AngelList's Investment Platform – TechCrunch". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  24. ↑ Doyle, Dentons-Rani (April 19, 2013). "FundersClub: what does the SEC's no-action relief really mean? | Lexology". Lexology. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  25. 1 2 "Moneyball for AngelList Syndicates". CB Insights Research. April 22, 2014. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  26. ↑ "Ranking the Top Angel and Venture Capital Fund Managers (Part 1)". Financial Poise. August 12, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2019.[ permanent dead link ]
  27. ↑ "Here's Proof That Crowdfunding Pays Off". Fortune. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  28. ↑ "AngelList Unveils Maiden Lane, A $25 Million Fund For AngelList Deals". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  29. ↑ "Angel List shakes up startup funding again with a new $25 million fund". SmartCompany. April 15, 2014. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
  30. ↑ "Gender Gap in Start-Ups and Women's Access to Financing". GenderGapGrader. October 21, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  31. 1 2 "AngelList gets $400M from China's CSC Venture Capital for early-stage startup investments". VentureBeat. October 12, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
  32. 1 2 3 Mims, Christopher (October 12, 2015). "Coming Soon From China: A $400 Million Bonanza for U.S. Startups". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved March 16, 2019.
  33. ↑ Dodson, Claire; Richardson, Nikita (August 8, 2016). "Updates From Our Most Innovative Companies". Fast Company. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  34. ↑ Kokalitcheva, Kia (October 10, 2017). "CoinList spins out of AngelList". Axios. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  35. ↑ Kauflin, Jeff. "12 Websites To Jump-Start Your Career In 2018". Forbes. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  36. ↑ "AngelList launches Syndicates in India". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 6, 2022.
  37. ↑ "AngelList pioneers rolling VC funds in pivot to SaaS". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  38. ↑ Gooptu, Biswarup. "iSeed opens South East Asia fund". The Economic Times. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  39. ↑ "A new micro-fund, iSeed SEA is investing $100k into SEA startups". BEAMSTART - Business Community, Resources, & Opportunities. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  40. ↑ Natasha, Mascarenhas. "AngelList just closed a $25M fund to back startups based on hiring velocity". TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
  41. ↑ Matthews, Jessica (April 22, 2022). "Exclusive: AngelList raises $44 million from 10% of its customers". Fortune. Fortune. Retrieved May 11, 2022. AngelList Venture opened up a follow-on round to its most active GPs and LPs and raised an additional $44 million.
  42. ↑ "AngelList Spins Out Jobs Community, Rebrands As Wellfound | Crowdfund Insider". www.crowdfundinsider.com. November 16, 2022. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  43. ↑ Matani, Amit (November 15, 2022). "AngelList Talent is now Wellfound". AngelList Talent. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  44. ↑ Azevedo, Mary Ann (July 28, 2023). "AngelList expands into private equity with acquisition of fintech startup Nova". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 7, 2023.
  45. ↑ "AngelList Unveils Maiden Lane, A $25 Million Fund For AngelList Deals". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  46. ↑ Timoner, Ondi (October 7, 2013). "How Naval Ravikant Risked It All To Pull The Veil Back on Venture Capital". Huffington Post. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  47. ↑ Coren, Michael J. (May 16, 2017). "AngelList is funding the minor leagues of venture capital (and giving founders $500,000 to start)". Quartz. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  48. ↑ Khazan, Olga (March 27, 2012). "With passage of JOBS Act, Steve Case, AngelList founder and others look forward to a less-regulated start-up world". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  49. ↑ Khazan, Olga (April 1, 2012). "JOBS Act aims to simplify start-up fundraising". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  50. ↑ Constine, Josh (August 17, 2013). "AngelList Tells SEC New Fundraising Rules Will Kill Startups – TechCrunch". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
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