Over 1,600 angel investors have participated in FinTech funding rounds since the start of 2014
- There were 1666 active angel investors in FinTech in the period, nearly half of the total Other Investors category, comprised of VCs, investment banks, and other institutional investors.
- The 1,666 angel investors participated in a total of 1,010 deals in the period. 16.6% of the total deals in the FinTech sector in the period had one or more angel investor contributing towards them.
- 521 of the 1010 angel investor deals contained more than one angel participating over 50% of the total. 16.3% of the deals had four or more angels participating as co-investors.
Angel investor activity rallies in Q1 2017 after a consistent decrease throughout 2016
- The number of deals steadily fell in each quarter throughout 2016, falling consistently from over 100 deals in Q1 2016 to 49 in Q4 2016, a decrease of over 50%.
- Q1 shows more signs of promise for investment activity, with the first rise of the number of deals happening in the period. Q1 2017 figures however are still dwarfed by Q1 2016 totals, with over $300m less total investment and over 40 less deals.
- The largest deal to contain an angel investor in Q1 2017 was for US-based Real Estate analytics company HouseCanary, which received a $33m Series A round facilitated by Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Smidt, with co-investment coming from ECA Ventures, Bryant Stibel Investments, and Morpheus Ventures.
US-based investors dominate the most active angel investors in FinTech with nine
- The top 10 made 150 investments combined across the period. Of the total investments involving one or more angel investor across the period, 14.8% of them had at least one the 10 most active investors as a participant.
- Nine out of the 10 most active angel investors in FinTech are based out the US. Chris Adelsbach Managing Director of the Techstars FinTech Accelerator in London being the only exception. He participated in 33 deals in a personal capacity across the period.
- Six of the nine US-based investors are based out of the San Francisco Bay Area: Daniel Curran, Tim Draper, Max Levchin, Ron Suber, Peter Thiel, and serial tech industry board member Scott Banister. The remaining three are comprised of New York-based duo Fabrice Grinda and Tom Glocer, and LA-based Brendan Wallace.
Over a fifth of angel investments since 2014 went to Payments & Remittances focused firms
- Payments & Remittances was the sector angel investors saw as the most appealing in the period. The sector saw 211 deals containing one or more angel investors a 20.9% share. The largest Payments & Remittances funding round to which an angel contributed was received by India-based One97 Communications. Ratan Tata prominent Indian industrialist and investor, participated in the $200m funding round in 2015.
- The nearest challenger was WealthTech, which took a 12.5% share of investments the equivalent to 126 deals. A notable deal in this sector was US-based Robinhood $13m funding round back in 2014. The investors including familiar faces in the tech space with Path co-founder Dave Morin, among others. The deal was notable for household names in the entertainment industry also participating, with the likes of Snoop Dogg and Nasir Jones, along with Hollywood actor Jared Leto also taking part.
- The five smallest sectors are comprised in Other due to each of them being invested in 50 times of less during the period. These include Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies, among others.
