INTRODUCTION Angel Investment Data Sources
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Responses were received from 31 or- ganizations. The total number of or- ganizations responding varies from year to year. The number of organi- zations reporting in 2022 is similar to the number of respondents in the previous three years (31, 27, 29). Of the 31 organizations that responded in 2022 just two reported that their members had not made any invest- ments in 2021. It needs to be emphasized that the investments reported by these or- ganizations represent a significant underestimate of overall angel in- vestment activity. First, it only in-
cludes the visible segment of the angel market; it does not include in- vestments made by angels investing on their own and through informal groups – the invisible market - that typically go unreported. 4 Second, because some organizations did not report their investments it does not cover all of the investment activity in the visible market. In this year’s report we have sought to address the under-reporting of angel in- vesting in Canada that arises from non-response by angel organiza- tions by complementing the infor- mation that organizations provided on their investments with the col-
lection of publicly available data on the investments of 10. This needs to be borne in mind when interpreting change from 2020 to 2021. Table 1 presents a profile of the age and size of the 31 Angel organiza- tions that participated in the 2021 survey. The participation of new or- ganizations – reflecting the entry of different players into the early stage investing ecosystem – has lowered the median age in 2021 to 8.5 years compared with 10 years in 2020. The average (mean) age was the same in 2021 as in 2020 (9 years) but higher than in 2018 (7 years).
4 The European Business Angel Network (EBAN) estimates that the visible market – which they define as comprising investments made by angels operating as part of a network which either has a direct relationship with EBAN or reports through a federation, reports through a national venture capital association or which appear on investment databases where start-up investments are reported and specify investors – comprises just 10% of total angel investment. However, other commentators suggest that this figure is too low.
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