Halo Report offers glimpse into scope of Angel investing

Angel investors increasingly have banded together into groups. In Oklahoma, the SeedStep Angels group has improved investors' access to quality deals, upped our ability to evaluate those deals, built the contacts and trust so necessary for syndicated investing, and made it easier to share ideas and best practices that could improve Oklahoma investors' rate of return.

From an entrepreneur's standpoint, the existence of organized angel groups can increase the efficiency of raising capital. While there are never shortcuts to attracting investors, successful angel groups know what they are looking for and have built standardized processes to help entrepreneurs represent their companies in the most effective ways to gain consideration.

An Oklahoma entrepreneur looking for capital can go to the SeedStep Angels website — seedstepangels.com — and learn about the types of companies that interest the angels. That entrepreneur can submit an application and business plan online for screening by the group. From there, the process for consideration is well-defined. Angels and entrepreneurs know the steps.

As the angel investing industry has standardized and matured, it has become possible to aggregate data from angel groups.

Recently, the first Halo Report, a collaborative effort from The Angel Resource Institute, Silicon Valley Bank and CB Insights, was published, providing data that has been highly desired but until now difficult to aggregate and access.