Angel Investment Returns Review
AngelCentral is an active Angel Club that started off as an informal group back in 2017. In 2018, we formalized into a company in order to be more systematic and deliberate in what we do for angels. Currently we have 120 members and help angels with deal flow, education and syndication administration. To date we have helped angels fund >S$30M into >100 ASEAN startups.
Our vision is to build a community of high-quality angel investors in Singapore and ASEAN, with angel members who don’t just do well as angel investors but also do the right thing for startups and founders. At the same time, we also recognize our ecosystem is relatively young and so focus a lot on peer-to-peer learning among angel investors in addition to providing lots of deal flow and syndication administration services.
As of end 2023, we have 120 angel members and reviewed 775 startups during the year. Cumulatively, our club has funded >S$30M since inception of which more than 60% are syndicated via our syndication administration services. We have also run over 100 workshops on topics like Angel Investing Masterclasses, Legal Masterclasses, Due Diligence Masterclasses and deep dives into various startup sectors. In total, we have trained over 1000 angel investors in the ASEAN region.
Angel Investments in 2023
Digging into 2023, the year was a tough year with a clear funding winter storming in the first half with only a slight thaw showing in 4Q 2023. So while our activity of pitches and workshops continued as per normal, the actual quantum funded by our angels fell by about 25% to S$3.6M. This is quite a low from the high of almost S$6M back in 2021. This data is corroborated by our annual Angel Behavioral Survey where 31% of angels surveyed told us that they are halting or reducing their angel investments.
In total for 2023, we had 4 new syndicates and 4 uprounds. We also experienced 3 failures for older syndicates. These losses were offset by 4 uprounds in 2023.
And as an academic exercise, we have been calculating the angel investment returns for a hypothetical angel who participates with the same sum in each and every syndicate. As a recap, from 2Q2018 to 2Q2023, we helped angel members create a total of 31 syndicates funding about $20+M into 31 different startups regionally. These startups included startups from Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. This is testimony to our regional reach for dealflow.
AC Syndicate Qualitiative Analysis
AngelCentral analyzed all 31 startups that we helped our Angels create syndicates for. Syndicated deals have deeper curation as it’s a group effort by multiple angels who want to invest in a startup. Frequently, there is also a lead angel organizing.
Some terms used :
- “Upround” is counted so long as there is new money raised at higher valuation; Can be any instrument but the raise must be of minimum USD$100K or more;
- “Ongoing” is counted if the startup has no fund raising activity since our round and is a going concern;
- “Downround” is counted if the startup raised more money on a down round
- “Closed Down” is counted if the startup is inactive or on verge of closing down.
Some assumptions made :
- Same amount invested per syndicate
- Invest in all 31 syndicates since end 2Q 2018 to 2Q 2023
- Upround is based on new financing valuation or exceptional (>3X) revenue growth
- Data source is actual funding rounds
Our angel investment returns
We are happy to report that if an angel participated in every syndicated deal, the performance is pretty good. Take a look at the tables below.
| Status | 2018/2019 | 2020/2021 | 2022/2Q2023 |
| Upround/Rev >3X | 4 | 7 | 2 |
| Ongoing | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| Downround | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Closed/Failed | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Some Startups Invested | Nimbus, Neuron | ParcelPerform, Auk Industries, PropScout, Fonos | Motorist, Bizhare, imotorbike, MetroResidences |
| Data as of end 2Q2023 | TVPI |
| AngelCentral Syndicates | 1.64 |
| Syndicates IRR | 19.82% |
| 2018 Vintage Global VC (median)
2019 Vintage Global VC (median) |
1.66
1.36 |
Nb: Global VC performance numbers are from Angelist.
Comparing against USA VCs of similar vintages, our syndicates as a whole have generated returns that is comparable or above the median. This is a good endorsement of the quality of our dealflow and angels who are basically picking startups better than the average VC in the USA.
Unfortunately, there is no data on ASEAN seed VCs that will allow us to compare against our direct VC peers. But looking at the numbers by themselves, a TVPI of 1.64 with an IRR about 20% is good returns for a 5 year old fund that just went thru a funding winter. It will be interesting to continue tracking this in the years ahead as the startups mature even more.
In summary
AngelCentral provides angel members with lots of deal flow, quality learning and also syndication administration. While we measure our impact by the 1000+ angels touched and the S$30+M funded into startups, we also want to know if our angels are getting good returns.
We are happy to report that based on the AC Syndicate returns analysis above, the data shows that our club’s curation is working and is of good quality at AngelCentral. We believe that as our community grows and we help each other find and evaluate startups better, the curation and so returns will only get better with time. So, if you are keen to learn more about angel investing and want to join a group of really passionate and sincere angel investors, do find out more about AngelCentral membership.
If you are interested on our yearly review, view our angel investment returns in 2021 and angel investment returns in 2022 for our syndicated deals.
