What drives the returns of business angels’ investments? An empirical analysis of the Italian informal venture capital market

The aim of this study is to analyze the returns of business angels’ investments and their determinants. In this research the author wants to investigate the relationship existing between the performance of business angels investments and a series of explanatory variables widely used in the literature dealing with formal venture capital investments. Thanks to the data provided by surveyed business angels about their exits, it has been possible to build a dataset containing the details of about 90 disinvestments made in Italy during the 2007-2010 time period. This study shows that the most important features business angels look for when financing new firms is the management team, followed by the potential growth of the market. Furthermore, the exit strategy and the industry financed have a significant impact on the IRR of angels’ investments.