Value-adding roles of angel investor: A research on Turkish angel investors

The angel investment system is shown as the most important source of external capital for the core and early stages of the enterprise. Banks do not seek to finance young businesses due to their perceived risks and insecurities. Moreover, venture capital companies mostly focus on the later stages of the venture. In this case, in these early stages where entrepreneurs are generally alone, angel investors support entrepreneurs with their various contributions and become partners in their dreams. Many of studies show that angel investors add a wide range of values to the initiatives they invest with social capital and human capital as well as financial capital. However, although the benefits of angel investors to entrepreneurs have been unearthed, there are a limited number of studies trying to conceptualize this important issue. Non-financial contributions, creating added value in the postinvestment, has been neglected in academic studies related to angel investment system in Turkey. Therefore, this study is important both for attracting attention to the non-financial contributions of the angel investors and for eliminating the deficiencies in the literature. In this context, the study aims to reveal the nonfinancial contributions of the angel investment system that attracts attention in recent years. For the purpose of the study, one-to-one interviews were made with twelve Turkish angel investors. The data were subjected to descriptive analysis. As a result of the analysis, demographic characteristics and contributions of Turkish angel investors are generally similar to the literature. However, it is determined that some contributions cannot be classified under current roles, and it is not in a remarkable position even if it is classified. Therefore, it is concluded that the scope of role classifications in the current literature is narrow. In this context, a new model proposal is presented with the value-adding roles of angel investors.