What Are Angel Investors?

By Jeremy Bowman – Updated Apr 9, 2025 at 11:20 AM EST

Key Points

Angel investors provide crucial early funding, often being accessible due to their independent, informal nature.
Relationships with angel investors can be critical, impacting a startup's survival and growth.
Entrepreneurs can find angel investors through personal networks, specialized websites like AngelList, or LinkedIn.

If you’ve heard of angel investors before, you might know that this term sounds just like its meaning. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who invest in startups and other businesses, in a sense coming to the rescue of entrepreneurs who need capital. Angel investors can be professionals or make a one-off investment. They hope to realize the high upside potential that comes with investing in startups.

Often, an angel investor is a friend or family member of the entrepreneur.

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Start-Up

A young company developing innovative solutions to solve significant problems for a large, scalable market with growth potential.

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About the Author

Jeremy Bowman has been a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst, covering technology, consumer goods, and macroeconomic trends since 2011. Before The Motley Fool, Jeremy was a newspaper reporter, restaurant manager, and English teacher abroad. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Colorado College and a master’s degree in business administration from American University. One of his Motley Fool headlines was briefly featured on Late Night with Stephen Colbert.

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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Jeremy Bowman has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.