Rise of angels: More money or more inexperienced investors?

Rise of angels: More money or more inexperienced investors?

Angels are coming forth in the Middle East, more ready than ever to start investing in startups. Over the past year, several new angel investment networks have emerged, while existing networks are expanding their activities, hoping to contribute to, and benefit from the growth of startups and their technology.

What began as a rather informal landscape, with keen investors coming together every so often to invest in startups in the region, has bourgeoned into well-established networks and syndicate structures providing crucial early-stage investment.

Across the startup funding spectrum, angel investment is focused on the seed to pre-Series A investment stage, typically before a startup has a proven track record. Ticket sizes can range from $10,000 to $100,000 and in some cases, reach a few million. Given these smaller cheque sizes, angel investors tend to be more agile than traditional venture capital (VC) firms and respond quicker to new opportunities. And over this past year, many angel investors have taken the opportunities that the pandemic presented.

"We thought that investors might be reluctant to get in on new deals; however, what happened was that we closed one of the largest deals in our history,“ says Zeina Mandour, general manager of Egypt-based Cairo Angels, which