It is time to review the performance of my angel investment portfolio 2024.
The year started with a total of 30 investments, mostly in B2B software startups and in the U.S. and in Europe.
🇺🇸 🇪🇺
Valuations changed for 13 of these 30 investments. There were positive signs of portfolio momentum from seven uprounds throughout the year, three of which were very substantial.
🚀 🚀🚀
Three companies survived via downrounds in the form of bridge financing. Not ideal, but better than failure.
🌉 🌉 🌉
One company exited via M&A, and two companies were liquidated. Interestingly, one of the liquidated companies was older than 15 years and generated significant revenue, but the cap table just wasn't right. A fellow investor captured it perfectly when he said they were “too big to fail, too small to exit”.
⚰️ ⚰️
The valuation for the remaining 17 companies remained the same. Two have already started raising and will conclude in the first quarter of 2025, and another three companies will start raising shortly and aim to close in the second quarter. Some of the remaining 12 aim to raise in the second half of 2025; the others are not forced to raise because they are well funded into 2026. Their ability to raise later in the year will of course depend on performance and 2025 market conditions.
> =
I made three new investments - one seed and two opportunistic series A - and the year therefore ended with the same number of investments as it started.
🆕🆕🆕
In summary: It was an active year and there was solid progress; at the same time very early stage investing proves to be a loooooooong game. While the uprounds and the M&A exit were positive, there was no >10X liquidity event, and the portfolio performance continues to depend on future rounds and eventual exits to deliver strong returns.
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This post was first published on LinkedIn in February 2025
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