Alliance of Angels

The Alliance of Angels is a Seattle-based angel investment group describing itself as the largest and most active in the Pacific Northwest, with more than 180 accredited investor members. Members attend monthly meetings at which three to five companies pitch, drawn from more than thirty sourced each month and filtered through the group's screening process. Investment is made by individual members, often through special-purpose vehicles the group is used to setting up, and a separate member-led Innovation Fund makes roughly $150,000 investments in around a dozen companies a year; participation in that fund requires membership. The organisation states an internal rate of return of about 20 per cent calculated over the prior ten years on total member cash invested through AoA, using cost-based valuations written down on a linear scale rather than marked to market. It reports more than forty exits. Membership requires accredited-investor status; the group's site poses the question of dues in its FAQ but does not publish the answer.

How it works

Companies are sourced and pre-screened, then three to five pitch at each monthly member meeting. Members form due-diligence teams, negotiate terms and invest individually or through SPVs. The Innovation Fund, open only to members and backed by more than fifty fund participants, invests about $150,000 per company and typically decides within six weeks of the screening meeting. Investor education sessions run around Seattle and the Eastside.

Typical member

Members are accredited investors under Regulation D who must also have enough financial and business knowledge to evaluate the merits and risks of the investments presented. The group says it selects for diverse industry and professional credentials and for willingness to do diligence, mentoring and outreach rather than only writing cheques.

AoA publishes an unusual amount of methodology detail for an angel group: it explains exactly how its stated 20 per cent IRR is calculated, including that holdings are carried at cost and written down linearly rather than marked to market. That is more candour than most peers offer, though the figure is still self-reported and derived partly from member-supplied data. Against that, the group does not publish its dues at all, even though its own FAQ raises the question, so cost cannot be compared with Houston Angel Network or CTAN without contacting the group. Selection favours investors who will do diligence work and mentor companies, so it is a poor fit for passive cheque-writers. Geographic focus on the Pacific Northwest is real: deal flow is regional, not national.

Editorial analysis by Peer Group Guide editors. It is separated from the record above and follows the editorial policy.