Issues In Angel Investing Research : An Analysis of Data and Returns in the US and Abroad

Research on angel investors is sparse because data are sparse. Most comprehensive studies of angel investors have focused on the US and UK. In these studies, definitions of angel investors and estimates of returns on angel investments vary dramatically. What can we make of this wide range of reported returns? We examine the literature and find that the calculations of reported results are vague. Most researchers do not explicitly report if their estimates are equal-weighted or value-weighted, nor do they say whether the results are weighted by the duration of the investment. We show that the unit of analysis – investment, project, or angel – affects interpretations. These limitations leave the current literature incomplete