An angel investor is someone who invests their own money in a small business in exchange for a minority stake (usually between 10% and 25%). Angel investors tend to be entrepreneurs or people with extensive experience in the business world. However, angel investment is about more than just money. (Source: British Business Bank).

My journey: I started looking into angel investing when I left UTC towards the end of 2019. I knew I wanted to diversify my interests, keep my business skills sharp and get better connected with my chosen home town of Manchester. After some google searches, I got myself on some distribution lists for investment syndicates and frankly, was immediately overwhelmed by the volume of opportunities that flooded my inbox with requests for investments that were way out of my comfort zone. 

I took a deep breath and signed up for the Northern Women’s Investment Forum hosted by UKBAA and it was here that the fog started to lift. I met entrepreneurs promoting their ideas, investors and would-be investors and I started to get my head around the angel investing eco-system. I also learned about the huge disparity in funding provided to female-founded businesses compared to mixed- or male-founded businesses. Equally, it became clear that there were many women like me who were interested in investing in early-stage businesses but didn’t have a clue where to start. Did you know that only 14% of angel investors are women? (Source : https://ukbaa.org.uk/our-programmes/women-backing-women/women-angel-insights-report-launch/)

I attended a few pitch events organised by GC Angels, did some more reading, signed up with CrowdCube and Ethex and started refining my investment strategy. I decided to focus on start up businesses with a focus on sustainability and wellbeing, and ideally with a female founder and a northern base. It was here that the breakthrough came for me - joining the Women Angels of the North was like finding my tribe. A group of exceptional women with diverse careers but unified by a motivation to support other women and hopefully make some successful investments. Some members of the syndicate are entrepreneurs as well as investors and the vast array of skills and experiences around the table ensure we have constructive conversations with the entrepreneurs we meet. 

In 2023 I became a founder member of the Lifted Ventures syndicate. Lifted Ventures exists to increase the flow of early stage capital to female founders, and promote the business benefits of backing women. (https://liftedventures.co.uk/)

How a typical investment journey looks: Lifted Ventures and my other syndicates organise pitch events, a bit like Dragon’s Den. If I’m interested in any of the pitches, we have follow up calls where we can ask more questions. There’s no obligation to follow up with an investment, nor are huge sums involved - maybe £2.5k, £5k or more at a time per individual investor but aggregated within a syndicate this becomes a meaningful sum for the entrepreneurs. I do some due diligence of my own, chat to other members of the syndicate and my own network before I commit to a deal. 

Once the funding round is closed and all the paperwork returned, the founder is able to get back to growing the business. I get board meeting minutes and plenty of opportunity to ask questions about progress and get further involved if appropriate.

So that’s my journey so far - I’m building my portfolio, learning more as I go and thankful for the training and support from Lifted Ventures, UKBAA, NorthInvest, WAOTN and others. I can’t give any financial advice of course, but would recommend taking a look at angel investing as part of a broader investment strategy. Yes it’s risky, but I’m enjoying the experience and hopefully will see a return in the longer term.