Is this the end of angel investment?

By Nick Lyth

The Question

​In these dark days of lockdown and economic paralysis due to Covid-19, many ask whether it will be possible to continue an angel investment syndicate?  

​This is a time when everyone has seen their investment portfolios lose value in a shocking fall in the market.  It is a time when every investor’s liquidity has been compromised.  Worse, it is a time when the outcome of the crisis is not only uncertain, it is expected to be both long-term and transformative, but no-one, as yet, knows how.

The Answer

​The answer to the question must surely be, this is no time for angel investment.  It is the highest risk of any asset class, often viewed as a retired man’s hobby.  It will be the first to disappear as a result of the dreadful impact of this tiny, invisible and previously unknown virus on our ecosystem.

​An Exception

​But this ignores the first and most basic premise on which Green Angel Syndicate was established in 2013, and to which it has consistently adhered ever since.  GAS is set up to invest in innovations that will be of benefit to the Green Economy in the fight against climate change and global warming, in particular relating to resource use.  How do we define “resource use”?  We define it in its most basic sense, the way we use energy, food, water and waste.

Meeting a Critical Need

​These are the resources we need in order to live.  We cannot live, as individuals, families, communities, societies, economies, without water, food and energy.  The pressures caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic on the global economy do not change this basic truth.  Yet these resources are under threat from the enormous growth in global population since the Second World War.  We suffer from shortages and compromised supply lines in all of these resources.

Now more than ever

The pandemic and consequent global economic meltdown makes the problem worse, not better.  The access to food, water, energy, is under more pressure because of the lockdown, not less pressure.  As the problems are starting to hit the poorer parts of the economy not only in places like India, but even in the US, the difficulties with the provision of adequate resources are starting to become chronic.

​Real and meaningful innovation in the provision of these resources is needed more now than ever before.  Water management, treatment and distribution will affect the outcome on millions of lives in India.  The adequate provision of healthy food to regions in Africa will determine the fate of entire communities.  And so Green Angel Syndicate is needed more now than ever before, because it is still the only angel syndicate in the UK specialising in these areas.

Now is the time to grow

This is not a time to STOP investing in these innovations, it is a time to invest MORE and work HARDER to make them come to life.  As an investment sector, therefore, it is imperative that the work of Green Angel Syndicate continues, as it will, and continues to make viable commercial investments using its specialist knowledge to good effect.

Therefore, to those who ask whether angel investment will dry up in the face of this economic tsunami, the answer is, almost certainly Yes.

The Ultimate Answer

But to those who ask whether angel investment in Green Angel Syndicate will dry up, the answer is categorically No.  We are specialising in the fight against climate change and global warming, but this specialisation means that we are addressing all the resource use problems that will affect the health of the human race on the planet in the crisis that we now face.

​More people will join the syndicate, the capacity to invest will increase, and the deal flow will continue to grow.  We don’t stop now.  We accelerate, we grow more, we do more, and we aim to make more of a difference to our world, when its need for this work is growing greater and greater by the day.

Nick Lyth is Founder and Director of Green Angel Syndicate, the only angel investment syndicate in the UK specialising in the fight against Climate Change and Global Warming. For regular updates follow Green Angel Syndicate on LinkedIn and Twitter.