Angel investors refer to wealthy professional investors who have certain capital and invest in start-ups. In the United States, "Securities and Exchange Commission Regulation 50 1" and "Securities Law 1993" Regulation D clearly stipulate the standards of "qualified investors" who can become angel investors: investors must have a net asset of 1 10,000 US dollars, earn at least 200,000 US dollars annually, or invest at least10.5 million US dollars.

At present, there are two main types of angel investors in China. One is individual angel investors, mainly successful entrepreneurs, successful entrepreneurs, VC and so on. They understand the difficulties of enterprises and can help start-ups They often take the initiative to provide some value-added services for the company, such as strategic planning, talent introduction, public relations, network resources, follow-up financing and so on. It not only brings capital but also brings network of contacts, which is an important pillar of early entrepreneurship and innovation. The other is professionals, such as lawyers, accountants, executives of large enterprises and some industry experts. Although they don't have much entrepreneurial experience and investment experience, they have idle investable funds and related industry resources.

With the development of angel investment in China, well-known angel investors such as Zhu Min, Li Kaifu, Lei Jun, Zhou, Wang are gradually increasing. Driven by New Oriental Xu Xiaoping and Tencent Ceng Liqing, successful private entrepreneurs in China are gradually becoming the main force of angel investment, and a group of "rich second generation" investors active in several southern provinces also constitute the angel investor group in China.

Mode 2: angel investment team

For individual angel investors, because many people have their own jobs besides the identity of investors, they will encounter the following problems: there are few sources of projects and the number of projects is limited; Personal financial strength is limited, and it is difficult to diversify investment; Limited time, it is difficult to undertake tedious work such as due diligence; Lack of investment experience and knowledge, high investment failure rate.

As a result, some angel investors organized themselves and set up Cye angel club, angel alliance or angel investment association. Each family has dozens of angel investors, who can collect project sources, exchange evaluation regularly, and members can share industry experience and investment experience. For suitable projects, interested members can allocate due diligence work according to their own time and experience, and can jointly invest by many people, increase the investment quota and take risks.

The angel group in America is very developed. There are more than 300 angel groups all over the state, and more than half of them have formed an angel investment association to promote the exchange of information among them and the formulation of policies related to angel investment. There are many similar angel investment clubs and angel alliances in China, such as Shanghai Angel Investment Club, Shenzhen Angel Investor Club, Angel Group of Yajie Chamber of Commerce, K4 Forum Beijing Branch, Zhongguancun Entrepreneur Angel Investment Alliance, etc.

Mode 3: angel investment fund

The angel investment model with individuals as the main body of investment has great limitations, whether it is to help start-ups or its own investment ability. However, because angel investors have their own advantages, such as professional knowledge and interpersonal relationships, everyone can join hands to invest in the form of teams or funds, which can complement each other and play a greater role. As a result, with the further development of angel investment, angel funds, platform funds and other institutionalized angels have emerged.

The development of institutionalized angel investment can be divided into three stages:

The first stage is angel investment with loose membership management. This kind of angel investment institutions adopt the management mode of voluntary participation of members and division of responsibilities, such as preliminary screening of projects, due diligence and so on.

The second stage is angel investment institutions, which cooperate closely and are managed by managers. This angel investment institution uses the membership fees or other resources of angel investors to hire specialized professional managers to manage it.

The third stage is the angel investment institution that manages the angel investment fund. Similar to the early venture capital fund, it is a formal, organized private equity capital fund with fund managers. As an independent legal person, angel investment fund is responsible for managing the whole process of investment opportunity finding, project valuation, due diligence and investment.

The emergence of angel investment funds has fundamentally changed the original scattered, sporadic, individual and informal nature of angel investment, which is a key step towards the normalization of angel investment. Angel investment in the form of investment funds can make more passive investors who have no time and experience to choose companies or manage investment participate in angel investment, which will be the development trend of angel investment.

In the United States and Europe, angel investment funds have been fully developed, and their financial resources, resources and team can bring a startup company to a very high stage of development, and the investment success rate is much higher than that of a single angel investment. At present, individual angel investment in China has not fully developed, which gives angel investment funds more opportunities for development. Organized and institutionalized angels with more funds, more professional teams and wider resources will become the development trend.

With the development of angel investment in China, angel investment in the form of investment funds has gradually emerged and become active in China. Some angel investors with active investment and sufficient funds set up angel investment funds to operate Cye more professionally.

For example, the Angel Bay Fund initiated by Pang, the Zhenge Fund established by the directors of New Oriental, He Boquan, the chairman of Robust, and Dexun Investment, the co-founder of Tencent, etc. In addition, there are some angel investment funds raised by external institutions, enterprises and individuals. They are similar to VC in form, but the fund scale and single investment scale are smaller, such as venture capital angel fund, Qingyang angel investment and Taishan investment.

Mode 4: angel investment in the form of incubator

Incubators can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense. In a broad sense, incubators mainly refer to science and technology parks where a large number of high-tech enterprises gather, such as Shenzhen Nanshan Hi-tech Pioneer Park, Shaanxi Yangling Hi-tech Agricultural Park and Shenzhen Yantian Bio-tech Park. In a narrow sense, an incubator refers to an institution incubating one or several projects to make them productized.

In 1950s, incubators originated in the United States and developed with the rise of new technology industry revolution. Business incubators have played a great role in promoting the development of high-tech industries, incubating and cultivating small and medium-sized high-tech enterprises, revitalizing the regional economy, and cultivating new economic growth points, and have been highly valued by governments all over the world, so incubators have developed rapidly around the world. In Europe, business incubators are also called "innovation centers".

In China, according to the Measures for the Identification and Management of Technology Business Incubators issued by the General Office of the Ministry of Science and Technology on 20 10, the main functions of incubators are to provide R&D, trial production and business facilities, as well as policies, laws, finance, investment and financing, enterprise management, human resources and market promotion and acceleration through entrepreneurship training, counseling and consultation.

Business incubators are mostly set up in science and technology parks around the country, which provide the most basic start-up funds, convenient supporting measures, cheap office space and even human resources services for start-up technology enterprises, and at the same time give all kinds of help to the invested companies at the enterprise management level.

The most famous incubator in the world is Y Combinator in Silicon Valley, USA. It not only attracts many well-known angel investors, but also incubates startups that are basically sought after and invested by super angels or VC. Y Combinator only invests $20,000-$30,000 in one project, accounting for about 5% of the shares. Coaches will be arranged for each entrepreneur, assisted by entrepreneurship courses, but entrepreneurial venues will not be provided. In addition, there are high-tech incubators in new york, such as Betaworks and Seed Camp, which span Europe and America.

Domestic incubators have developed at this stage, but they are not enough. Typical representatives include the 208% integration plan of Angel Bay Venture Capital, innovation works founded by Kai-fu Lee, Beijing Zhongguancun International Incubator Co., Ltd., CHINACCELERATOR, Lenovo Star Incubator, etc.

Incubators in China can be divided into high-tech zone series, science and technology system series, university science park series, private incubator series and overseas students pioneer park series. By the end of 20 10, there were nearly 800 incubators of various types of science and technology enterprises in China, including 346 national science and technology incubators. The total incubation area exceeds 30 million square meters, and there are more than 48,000 graduated enterprises. The average income in the year of graduation is 5.2 times of the registered capital, of which more than 30% are enterprises with capital100000 yuan, and there are more than 80 listed enterprises after graduation. At present, the number of incubators in China exceeds 5 1 000, with more than 654380+0,050 employees.

At this stage, there are two main models for the integration and development of incubators and angel investment:

1. government-led incubator and angel investment integration development model

Government-led incubators are non-profit social welfare organizations, mostly a public institution under the jurisdiction of government science and technology management departments or high-tech development zones. The management personnel of the incubator are dispatched by the government, and the operating funds are fully or partially allocated by the government. In this mode, the incubator attracts angel investment institutions at preferential prices and acts as a medium between angel investment and start-ups.

2. Business incubator and angel investment integration development model

Business incubators operate in a market-oriented way, with maintaining and increasing value as their business objectives and taking responsibility for their own profits and losses. This kind of incubator mostly adopts the operation mode of self-angel investment, which integrates incubation, investment and management, reduces investment cost and risk, makes full use of resource allocation and improves capital efficiency.

Mode 5: angel investment in the form of investment platform

With the development of Internet and mobile Internet, more and more application terminals and platforms begin to open their interfaces to the outside world, which enables many entrepreneurial teams and startups to start businesses based on these application platforms. For example, around the platform of Apple App Store, there are many applications and games that make many entrepreneurial teams flock to it.

In order to attract more entrepreneurs to develop products and enhance the value of their platforms, many platforms have set up platform-based investment funds to invest in potential startups on their platforms. These platform funds can not only give financial support to startups, but also bring them rich resources on the platform.