2021 Report on Angel Investing in Canada

C ONC LU S I ON I nves tment Tr ends i n 2020 : Summa r y

175

size is often much larger than the amount invested by angel organiza- tions. However, most organizations did not have detailed information on non-member investors included in the deals their members invested in. There was an increase in the num- ber of investments compared with 2019 but a decline in the amount invested (2019 being a record year for the amount of angel investment). From a longer-term perspective, the number of investments was lower than in both 2017 and 2018, while the amount invested was lower than in the previous five years. There was also a decline in the average size of investment. It would therefore ap- pear that angel investing has slowed

higher than in the previous three years, suggesting that there was no drop off in the quality of demand. Nevertheless, it is a fundamental feature of angel investing that only a small proportion of the businesses that approach angel organizations attract funding from their members. In 2020 this figure was 6%, which is similar to previous years and higher than in 2019. Angel organizations that responded to the request for information made 416 investments in 2020, investing a total of $102.9 million. In many cas- es, angel organizations invest along- side other investors as part of a larger syndicate, so the overall deal

Demand for angel investment – measured by the number of busi- nesses approaching angel organi- zations – increased between 2019 and 2020. Indeed, the number of businesses approaching angel or- ganizations was higher in 2020 than in four of the previous five years. This suggests entrepreneurship has remained buoyant during the pan- demic. It can be speculated that job losses have resulted in new business creation rates and that this might, in turn, have led to an increase in de- mand for angel investment. More- over, the proportion of businesses that approached angel organiza- tions for funding which were then invited to present to members was

202 1 ANNUAL REPORT ON ANGEL I NVEST I NG I N CANADA The Chang i ng Landscape

Powered by