A single business angel investment in the right industry, at the right time, and in the right entrepreneur can change the way the world works. Think Google, Think electricity.
The UK market in particular has shown a considerable rise in angel investment activity in recent years.
The British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) states that in the 2007-08 its members invested in over 1,300 UK based enterprises and nearly 80 percent of these investments were below £2m in value.
This is a reflection of the latest trend where Venture Capital companies are beginning to lend their support to new businesses and start-ups at a very early and formative stage.
The world’s most lucrative angel investment still remains Google, where one investor exited with over 5.1 million shares. At today’s share price of $492 per share this would equate to a net worth of $2.5 billion from an initial investment of $100,000. However is it fair to simplify quantify a ROI and state that Google is the world’s best ever angel investment?
To me, investment in ‘electricity’ was more of a revolutionary concept and this led me to write this article exploring both technologies.
Investment in electricity or Google may seem worlds apart. However, they do share one common underlying factor: both are infinitely scalable disruptive technologies and in combination both have changed an entire generation shaping the way we live and interact with one another.
Electricity belongs to the era of the late nineteenth century, the Second Industrial Revolution whilst Google is a story of a seed investment that occurred only 14 or so years ago.
Both electricity and Google continue to be the finest representations of how a combined force of innovators and angel investors can band together and change the world for the better, touching the life of every single person on this planet.
Entrepreneurs and angel investors must consider that innovations are never static and that innovators will always attempt to improve upon the way things are done. For example, the effects of global warming and the increasing costs of electricity generation has compelled entrepreneurs to invent new, more efficient green methods of electricity generation in the field of nuclear energy, wind power and other alternative sources. The same is also occurring in new virtual technologies that build upon the paradigm set by Google.
It is always in an entrepreneur’s interest (and some will argue, nature) to seek new and more efficient ways of doing things – and to also look for ways to DISRUPT existing technologies.
AC electricity is the best example of a disruptive technology and we will look into this when we consider electricity as one of the world’s greatest investments.
Article 1
The Best Investment in the World: Electricity
Article 2
The Best Investment in the World: Google
For those angel investors and entrepreneurs that do not know what we do, Venture Giants provides a platform that allows entrepreneurs with innovative investment opportunities and projects to come face to face with business angel investors and HNWIs. These investors are looking to invest in alternative investments that have the potential to outperform traditional investments.