How we finance our new and growing firms

Entrepreneurs are the engines that drive new companies and financing is the fuel that propels them. One form of that financing is called informal investing, sometimes called ''business angel activity'' (which we reserve for more professional and commercial investors). Informal investors use their own money and carry out their own due diligence to invest in the entrepreneurial opportunities of other entrepreneurs.

The seraphim profile of Australia's business angels : a survey of the identifying characteristics, behaviour patterns and investment criteria of informal venture capitalists in Australia

In Australia, as it is all over the world, finding and acquiring equity capital is one of the major problems facing entrepreneurs who are starting or growing entrepreneurial ventures. The informal venture capital market, made up of high net worth non-institutional private equity investors (or 'business Angels') provides risk capital directly to new and growing businesses and has been shown to be considerably more significant than institutional providers as a source of finance for entrepreneurial businesses. Building upon and comporting with Angel research undertaken overseas, this study generated and evaluated data resulting from an investigation of Australian business Angels which focused upon three primary research questions: (i) Who are Australia's Informal Venture Capitalists (Business Angels)? (ii) How do they behave? (iii) What are their investment criteria? Analysis of answers resulting from the in-depth survey of 36 carefully screened respondents produced a detailed portrait, summarised and depicted in twelve key graphs. Together, the graphs form a descriptive construct - the 'Seraphim Profile' - which articulates Australian business Angels' identifying characteristics, patterns of investment behaviour and investment criteria.

An exploratory survey of Australia's informal venture capitalists : a predicate to theory building in the context of international angel research

In Australia, as it is all over the world, finding and acquiring equity capital is one of the major problems facing entrepreneurs who are starting or growing entrepreneurial ventures. The informal venture capital market, made up of high net worth non-institutional private equity investors (or ‘business Angels’) provides risk capital directly to new and growing businesses and has been shown to be considerably more significant than institutional providers as a source of finance for entrepreneurial businesses. Building upon and comporting with Angel research undertaken overseas, this study generated and evaluated data resulting from an investigation of Australian business Angels which focused upon three primary research questions: (i) Who are Australia's Informal Venture Capitalists (Business Angels)? (ii) How do they behave? (iii) What are their investment criteria? Analysis of answers resulting from a survey of 36 carefully screened respondents produced a descriptive profile, depicted in twelve key graphs, of Australian Angels' identifying characteristics, patterns of investment behaviour and investment criteria. The study initiates Australian Angel research into the developing international continuum of formal Angel research and can serve as the generator of empirically sensible hypotheses for future research and theory development.

The demography of investor heaven : a synthesis of international research on the characteristics, attitudes, and investment behaviour of business angels

The purpose of this paper was to compile and compare the findings of all robust international research providing national profiles of business angels (informal venture capitalists). At the outset, it was not clear how comparable studies would be and, as the project advanced, it became clear that few direct comparisons would be possible. Nevertheless, there were broad categories common to many studies and consequently a template was developed and used to summarise each study in a consistent format. The resulting report thus provides a summary of the data across 16 studies covering 9 different countries, with key points from the findings of each study.

This is by no means an elegant report, but the authors believe it is a useful one. It provides a compendium of international angel research neatly bundled in one package. It should benefit anyone considering conducting the first study of business angels for their country or building on research already completed.