What is a Super Angel? The word is frequently used but – like with many things – nobody really knows what it actually means. Quickly said, a super angel refers to an angel investor, who is specifically successful, invests in more companies and has a larger ticket size than most other angel investors. Since investment levels and approaches are different for each country it is difficult to agree on a generally accepted (quantitative) definition of a super angel.
It would be fair to say that the top 5% of each country’s angel investors can be called super angels. But Austria has more than 360 active business angels and that would be 18 super angels. Unfortunately, this is not the current number of super angels in this country. This is why the aaia tried to find other useful criteria for defining a super angel and to do so we spoke with Andreas Mihalovits, founder of the Global Super Angels Club.
Ticket Size
A business angel invests her or his own money. On average they invest more in each startups than most other business angels. For counting as a super angel that should be around six-figures ticket sizes. What is more, each investment should succeed 100k. In comparison the average angel investment in Europe was 20.4k for the year 2017
Portfolio
In total, the portfolio should comprise a high seven-figure sum. To put this number in relation, one can have a look at the average aaia member who holds a portfolio of 970k. In general, a super angel should be invested in a minimum of 20 startups at each time and follow a portfolio strategy. Which means that investments are spread amongst several startups in different industries, which spreads risks and enables network effects amongst them.
Soft criteria
Becoming a super angel is not only about quantitative and financial criteria. Super angels are mostly full-time in this job. Amongst the soft criteria are also the high level of experience and outstanding dealflow quality. What counts as well is exit experience, not only as an entrepreneur themselves, but also with portfolio startups. Super angels are experts in fundraising for their companies and do this at an international level, where they are generally well connected. Many super angels are also characterized by their decisiveness.
Global Super Angels Club
In 2017, Anna Longoni & Andreas Mihalovits founded a Global Super Angels Club. The club welcomes active angel investors having invested at least seven-figure amounts in startups willing to exchange their dealflow with other international super angels and open to create or participate in cross-border syndicates. In 2017 the first Global Super Angels Summit took place in Marbella, Spain. 26 super angels came together from 16 different countries including Spain, Dubai, Finland, France, Estonia, Russia, Malta, England, Monte Carlo, Switzerland, Germany, USA, Canada, Mexico and Denmark. Austria was represented by aaia President Hansi Hansmann. 2 females are amongst the members, including the speaker at this year’s Investors Day, Helga Finkel, from Malta. The aaia is actively connecting investors with Super Angel potential with the club.
The date for the next Super Angel Summit will be announced soon at www.globalsuperangels.club – stay tuned!