Women angel investors & VCs have invested in innovation across the USA for decades. They have formed groups, micro-VCs, VC funds, and other vehicles of access to capital. Since 2010, the number of angel investors has increased from single digit representation (7% of angel investors are women) to close to 24% in 2021. This progress took many individuals and dedicated communities to RISE by lifting others. At Stella.co, we honor these groups since our inception in 2012 and have curated a map of the USA to capture, connect and collaborate with these angel groups and have tracked the rise of the micro VC and early-stage VC funds led by women. We have published the map on various occasion, but have been asked for this exact database too many times, so HERE IT IS.
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Angel Investor: An individual who provides capital for business startups, typiclaly at the pre-seed or seed stage, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. They write checks or wire funds from their own personal wealth portfolio, investments range from $5K to $200K, with the average being $25K, and can also provide expertise (strategic or tactical) and network capital.
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Angel Investor Group: A group of angel investors who regularly convene as a collective, usually in-person or via zoom, to evaluate and invest in startups, typically at the seed stage ($50K-$500K range). The practices of specific angel groups often range widely, typically focus on a concentrated geographic region (covid changed this a bit), and occasionally focus on an industry sector. The goal is to convene like-minded individuals to use the group members’ access, networks and knowledge to invest smarter.
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Micro VC: a venture capital fund ($2M to $100M), that invests in the pre-seed or seed stage, investing alongside an angel group (or a sidecar fund), predominantly composed of angel investors as partners or LPs, with amounts of finance that is usually less than that of traditional venture capital (range: $25K to $500K), typically in companies that have startup traction but not yet enough to seek VC funding for growth. For this dataset, these micro VCs need to have been predominantly led by women at Partner level (or equivalent).