Why Angel Investors are Hard to Find in Southeast Asia
By: Alexander Lim
Tags: Investing, Fundraising, Startup, Angel Investors, Funding

Why Angel Investors are Hard to Find in Southeast Asia

Photo by Fábio Lucas from Pexels

What is an Angel Investor?

According to Wikipedia, Angel Investor is an affluent, business-savvy individual who provides capital for a business’ start-up, growth or expansion.

Broadly, there are three types of investors: (1) Business Angels; (2) Institutional Investors; and (3) Venture Capitalists.

The first reason why there are so few angel investors in Southeast Asia is because most of them are not really aware of what an angel investor actually is.

They think that angel investors are like venture capitalists or even startups themselves — those who seek funding from big corporations and institutional funds with proven track records.

The second reason why there are so few angel investors in Southeast Asia is because of how they are perceived.

For example, most people think that angel investors are just wealthy individuals who want to get financially rewarded for their money. But this is not the case at all.

Most of them are business-savvy individuals who actually want to help startups get started and grow in the right direction.

They provide a certain amount of money and only after a certain period of time do they reap any financial rewards.

All they want is to see their investment grow, or if it cannot grow, at least they will see how the startup will become more successful than them through their partnership with the right people.

And another prime reason why there are so few angel investors in Southeast Asia is because most Southeast Asians think that angel investors have fancy cars, great houses and expensive watches — but this is not true at all!

In fact, most of them do not own any fancy cars, great houses or expensive watches at all! Their primary goal is to help startups become successful and that’s it; they don’t really care about the financial gains as long as they get a good return on investment in the long run through the success of the startup they invested in.

Angel investors come from different countries and experiences; some have been startup owners while others have been former entrepreneurs who decided to invest in other companies just for fun or for experience — but one thing is for sure: They will always put money into something worthwhile and make sure that it works out properly instead of trying to milk it dry before throwing away all their money on other things which might fail miserably anyway.

They put their money where their mouth is! And this makes them really difficult to find because many people think that investing money just doesn’t make sense anymore when you look at all those billionaires who lost all their fortunes through investments which went sour anyway!

But I can assure you that there are still many angel investors in Southeast Asia who are willing to put their money into viable startup concepts.

So if you are a startup owner looking for funding, you should make sure that your business concept is the right one because it is very easy to make money through investments.

But it is very difficult to make money through investments which are not the right ones. If people invest in your startup, they will expect a return on their investment or they will not keep investing in it anymore; so you have to be able to convince them that your business idea is the right one and that it will provide them with a good return on investment in the long run!

There are so many startups which are unable to make it because they cannot convince investors that their business concepts are good and that they will provide a good return on investment.

So remember this: You have to be able to convince your investors that your business concept is the right one and that you will be able to make it work in the long run!

If you’re interested in getting funding for your startup, get in touch with angel investors from both your home country and from other countries as well. It is also a good idea to get in touch with angel investors who have already invested in successful startups.

This is because their value of money is much higher than those who haven’t been part of successful startups. They can actually help you get the funding you need — so do not hesitate to contact them!

If you are an angel investor and you’re interested in investing in startups from Southeast Asia, please get in touch with me! I will be glad to help you find good startups to invest in.

About the Author

I am the Founder of Cudy Technologies (www.cudy.co), a full-stack EdTech startup helping teachers and students teach and learn better. I am also a mentor and angel investor in other Startups of my other interests (Proptech, Fintech, HRtech, Ride-hailing, C2C marketplaces and SaaS). You can also find me on Cudy for early-stage Startup Founder mentorship and advice.

You can connect with me on Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderlhk) and let me know that you are a reader of my Medium posts in your invitation message.