AngelList, which has shaken up the world of tech investing by opening up the process of angel investing, is parking its tanks on Europe’s lawn. Today it launches UK syndicates, which will allow individuals to co-invest with early investors in European unicorns like Hailo, Transferwise and Zoopla. However EU and individual government regulations will hamper its wider rollout.
Last year AngelList syndicates invested over $100M in US startups, and it’s hoped that this UK launch will be the harbinger of greater Angel involvement in UK startups.
Andy Chung, who alongside Philipp Moehring leads AngelList in Europe, told us that the syndicates are run under the same model as the US.
But as regards launching in other European markets, there are “no firm timings given regulatory constraints,” he told us. Chung said AngelList was currently “hampered by a fragmented regulatory environment” in Europe. That said, the likely next target would be Germany.
Syndicates allow investors to invest alongside angels and VC funds, in exchange for a portion of carry on the deal (otherwise known as profit).
The platform is launching with UK syndicates, and by the looks of it AngelList has done a lot of footwork to get some of the best investors for launch.
Included is the highly respected Robin Klein (venture partner at Index Ventures and investor in Zoopla), Forward Partners (investors in Hailo) and Seedcamp (investors in Transferwise).
You can see all the UK syndicates here and others include individuals and institutions such as Alex Hoye, Playfair Capital, London Venture Partners, Anthemis Group, Doug Scott, Gil Dibner, Tim Jackson and Charlotte Street Capital.
AngelList says the UK syndicate leads they have brought in have, in the past already generated over £3 billion in exits.
UK syndicates are open to investors worldwide, and UK residents can also take advantage of tax breaks through the government-backed incentives such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and the Special EIS (SEIS). These allow investors in qualifying UK companies to reduce their taxes by 30-50% of their investment amount, offset any losses from their income and pay zero capital gains tax on their investment if it is held for 3 years.