Over the past 6 years LetsVenture has worked on creating “new angel investors” and today we are seeing some very mature investment patterns among our 6500+ angels.
Angels who onboarded LV in 2019 (Geographically)
I’d also like to believe that the LetsVenture platform itself has evolved over the years and brought “method” and “sanity” to the crazy world of startup investments. This has happened in no small part by LetsVenture solidly remaining a marketplace and not giving in and becoming a player on the platform itself. Have we found better ways to aide and manage processes for our investors and founders? Yes, of course; but in equal measure we have been able to build trust and truly measure the value each investor brings to the marketplace. Views and counter-views have risen to the top and found takers without any “management” from us and that is what makes LV a rich and deep platform for startups to raise funding from.
Going back to investor maturity, there are two ways we have seen this play out:#1 | The genesis of the "Value-Added Angel" or an investor who over time has become a strong player. He's done this by wilfully getting more involved and LV has provided him a safe space to experiment. These angels evaluate business thoroughly, question business models and market thesis, and then take a calculated risk of going ahead with investments. This does result in them taking more time to diligence the company and close a deal but this a good sign. At LetsVenture, we are happy that investors don’t just follow the herd but make informed decisions. This has over time helped us create the next set of “lead angels” and ultimately better “value-added investors” for our startups.
LV in 2019
#2 | Syndicates: This is very simply a continuum of the above with a “lead angel” maturing into a “syndicate lead”. Most such leads who have been able to create a backing on the platform are those that have a strong track record of investments and exits on LetsVenture and the community recognises that. LV started off formally with Syndicates back in 2017 but in the last year we have really seen syndicates come into their own. Today we have 22 on the platform, 12 of which were added in 2019. The platform has been able to leverage its investor base to make this group much larger. What this does? One the one hand, it gives the lead an opportunity to do larger deal sizes while getting incentivised with better carry on the work being done by them before and after the investment; and on the other hand it gives the investors on the platform access to otherwise “unavailable deals”. For the backers of the syndicate learnings from the syndicate lead actually help them build their own network and mature as investors. And thus a virtuous cycle is set in motion.
In 2020, we will see this activity scale and our endeavour at LetsVenture will be to translate the trust and compliance which is innate to our platform (and our biggest strength) into a better product offering for our investors.
PS: If you have a network of friends / alumni groups / workplace network who typically invest together, our Fund-as-a-Service might be the ideal solution for you. You can check out details here: https://letsventure.com/faas
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