Ottawa, Ontario, Canada – April 30, 2025 – A recurring theme at the National Angel Capital Organization’s 2025 NACO Summit in Ottawa this week has been the need for funding at all levels of the startup lifecycle, but especially in the early stages.
Given that the get-together for angel investors took place just as a new, economy-focused government was elected, the two dominant themes at the conference were the need for ecosystem/economic reform and the need for more pre-seed and seed investment.
Pat Gouhin, CEO of the Angel Capital Association in the U.S., said his organization has 16,000 members who invest about $500 million to $1 billion annually in startups. But he said 20 million Americans could be accredited investors (those wealthy enough to make angel investments without jeopardizing their overall wealth). So there is huge potential for growth.
He also cited data from the Desert Angels network in Tucson, Arizona, that shows the economic impact of angel investment. And he stressed that Tucson was a “fly-over community”, meaning it is commonly thought of as one of those places investors see from the plane when they fly between San Francisco and New York or Boston. (So this data should resonate in a smaller jurisdiction like Atlantic Canada.)
The data shows that for every $100,000 of angel investment, 5.8 jobs are created and payroll of $458,000 is generated. What’s more, there is a resulting economic output of $2.1 million, or a factor of 21 times the original investment.
He added that Desert Angels has invested $41.3 million in the past 10 years, giving an idea of the economic impact of this one angel group.
Said Gouhin, “There is truly an economic impact here.”