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Last year, the dollar value of angel investments increased 11.7 percent from a recent low of $18 billion (measured in 2010 dollars) the year before, according to analysis by University of New Hampshire’s Center for Venture Research (CVR). While this increase marks the first rise in angel dollars invested in real dollar terms since 2006, the amount put into companies in 2010 remains below that in every year from 2003 through 2007. In 2010, the amount invested by angels was only 5.6 percent higher in real dollar terms than that supplied in 2002.

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The trends are very different for the number of companies financed by business angels. Despite a slight dip between 2007 and 2008, the CVR reports a consistent increase in the number of angel-backed companies. Between 2002 and 2010, the number of companies financed by business angels rose 71.9 percent, according to the University of New Hampshire research group.

The result of these divergent trends is a steep drop in the size of the average angel investment from $528,000 in 2002 to $325,000 in 2010 (in real dollars).

Why angels dropped the average size of their investments 38 percent in real dollar terms between 2002 and 2010 remains an important unanswered question. Any thoughts?

Source: Created from data from the Center for Venture Research.

From Small Business Trends

Chart: What’s Happening with Angel Investing

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