Well, different investors participate in different stages of a venture. These stages carry different risks, apart from being different in the amount of capital consumed.
At the very beginning, which is where angel investors or seed stage investors participate, is the highest risk-stage of the venture. I.e. at this stage the venture carries a concept risk [i.e. will the concept/product/service work, will the business model work] as well as the execution risk [i.e. will the team deliver] and scaling-up risk [i.e. will this model scale and can this team scale it]. Angel Investors work closely with the entrepreneurs complementing the skill set gaps in the current team. The role of the angel investors, apart from providing capital, is to help the team prove the concept and the business model.
As the venture progresses and the concept and business model is proven, the venture needs to prepare for scale and that is when additional capital is required. At this stage, angels usually step back as the venture needs larger capital, which is usually got from institutional investors like VCs.
Institutional investors typically assist the company in building the foundations for scaling up – organization structure, processes resources, infrastructure, etc.
Post this round, capital is usually required for scaling up. This is the stage when growth stage VCs or PEs come in. At this stage, the model is proven, the teams capability to execute is proven and now the capital is required to significantly scale the operations, and perhaps explore new revenue streams, new markets, etc.
Therefore, in each of these three stages of a venture – i.e. concept stage, execution stage and scaling-up stage – different investors participate with different levels of involvement and different inputs required for these three different stages.
