Angel investors are known as funding engines, who act as the first outside, arms-length investors for the early-stage ventures. They bring both capital and non-financial value-added services to the startups. The involvement of angel investors in the startups has a snowball and leverage effect that increase the likelihood of fund mobilization from the formal venture capitalists and sustainability of the venture. However, many entrepreneurs seeking angel funds fail to do so and encounter startups mortality. On the other hand, the investing capacity of angel investors is under-utilized since they could not find attractive projects. This mismatching problem indicates the opaqueness and lack of information in the system, which is high in emerging economies. A better understanding of the investors, their investment preferences, and the investment decision criteria will facilitate entrepreneurs to raise funds successfully. Hence, this research aims to analyze and understand the Indian angel market in detail, which will give a better understanding of India and shed light on the angel investments phenomenon of the emerging economies.

732 transactions made by 405 angel investors from 2014 to 2018 were collected from established data sources such as Venture Intelligence, VCCEdge, Keiretsu Forum, Dealcurry, and The Chennai Angels and used as sample data. As a distinctive attempt, a composite syndication index encompassing multi-dimensional aspects of syndication was developed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to measure its robustness. Descriptive analysis, non-parametric mean comparison tests, correlation analysis, and regression estimations (Binomial, OLS, 3SLS) were used for data analysis.

The results defined the Indian angel investors as "Middle-aged, well-educated male, with strong entrepreneurial experience and moderate investing experience, largely living in metropolitan cities. They prefer the startups at the pre-seed stage, in the technology sector, with the B2C business model situated closely and in metro cities. They prefer robust syndication with at least one local investor and industry sector expertise in the syndication". The skewed pattern reveals the opaque, unbalanced, and nascent stage of Indian angel markets. Further, this study deciphered the pre-seed stage of the startups as a pioneer attempt and revealed significant differences between pre-seed and seed-stage angel investors. The simultaneous determination aspect was also studied while analyzing the factors influencing key investment decisions, i.e., investment size and syndication. The results support the notion that angel investors use syndication as resource-pooling and risk-reduction strategies.
It is expected that the angel investors' detailed characterization and factors influencing their investment decisions identified in this paper would help entrepreneurs to finetune their fundraising strategies. This would help policymakers promote a balanced and robust startup ecosystem that facilitates angel investors' active participation and the resulting magnificent growth of entrepreneurship and the economy.