Making angels out of investors

NEARLY every week, all around the world, wealthy people, self-made business owners and senior executives in a range of industries gather at private clubs, cultural centres or five-star hotels for free, invitation-only angel investing "boot camps" intended to help them size up fledgling business ideas and the people behind them.

The events are organised by Angel Labs, a global angel investor academy based in San Francisco whose mission is to widen the influence of angel investing, a field in which the relatively affluent put money into startups, usually in the tech industry.

"There is a huge interest in angel investing, but many of these people feel left out of what's happening in Silicon Valley," said Tugce Ergul, a co-founder of Angel Labs. "Most of our attendees have never invested in early-stage companies, but they are accomplished businesspeople who have a lot to offer entrepreneurs."