Where powerful women angel investors are made

An angel investor is an individual who provides capital to early-stage startups in exchange for equity ownership. They typically invest their personal funds during the early stages of a company's growth and often provide mentorship, industry expertise, and valuable network connections in addition to financial support.

Technically, anyone with money to invest can become an angel investor and start investing in companies.

However, accessing unregulated investment opportunities (like startup investment) will require you to sign an investor-risk declaration. You can either self-certify as a high-net-worth individual, showcasing your financial capacity for loss, OR you can self-certify as a sophisticated investor, showcasing your understanding of the risks associated with investing. 

To self-certify as a high-net-worth individual, you need to:

• have an annual income of £100,000; OR

• have net assets worth £250,000 (not including your primary residence) 

OR To self-certify as a sophisticated investor, you need to:

• have worked in a professional capacity in the private equity sector, or in the provision of finance for small and medium enterprises, in the last two years; OR

• have been the director of a company with an annual turnover of at least £1 million, in the last two years; OR

• made two or more investments in an unlisted company, in the last two years; OR

• have been a member of a network or syndicate of business angels for more than six months (and are still a member)

Typically angels invest £10k+ per company. As it’s important to spread your risk by investing in multiple companies, an angel will likely be building a portfolio of 10+ companies, but you can do this over several years. 

It is possible to invest smaller tickets, like £1k or £5k into startups, this simply depends on what the company is willing to accept or if you’re investing through a platform that pools money together.

Future Angels is for ambitious women interested in becoming angel investors, particularly those in senior corporate roles, successful/exited business owners, or professionals in the higher income tax bracket with an interest in business and innovation.

See our FAQs on ‘who can be an angel investor’ and ‘how much do angels typically invest’ to understand if this is for you. If you’re not sure, or you don’t quite fit the criteria yet, don’t worry - apply anyway!

Future Angels is not just teaching you the theory of Angel Investing.

Whilst we cover the key foundational elements, we focus on giving women the practical experience and confidence to be able to lead deals and investment discussions. Because we don’t just need women putting in their capital, we need women contributing their perspective.

Future Angels is powered by South East Angels, an active angel group, so you will have access to real live deals and case studies, as well as experienced angels from the network.

If you're interested in supporting Future Angels as a corporate sponsor, speaker, or in any another capacity, please reach out to us via team@futureangels.co.

We offer various partnership opportunities that align with diversity and inclusion goals while providing access to our network of women leaders and future investors.

In addition to the structured programme we have a big community of women who we host events for and we’re always looking for partners to contribute content for these.