Eric Woo joins AngelList to help investors raise funding

Eric Woo in December quietly joined AngelList in the new position of head of institutional capital.

Woo most recently was an adviser in the venture community, consulting to startups, accelerators, fund managers, corporations and LPs. And he earlier was a principal at the San Francisco LP Top Tier Capital Partners.

Woo tells VCJ that at AngelList he’ll focus on helping the platform’s community of angel investors and emerging fund managers form funds and raise capital.

When AngelList was founded in 2010 by Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi, it was engaged primarily in helping accredited investors find startups and invest seed money. It was a sort of Match.com for angel investors and startup entrepreneurs.

The platform since then has expanded to help angel investors raise cash in institutional funds.

The site now also operates a job board to help people find work at startups, and it reports that 2 million candidates were actively job hunting in 2018.

In 2016, AngelList acquired Product Hunt to help users launch and find new tech products and apps.

Woo says the site naturally evolved from its initial days of helping angel investors get access to deals.

“Now that the angel investors have used AngelList over the years and built a track record, the next step in their growth is to build a fund,” Woo says.

That’s where AngelList comes in, as Woo says he will assist angel investors with fund formation and communication with LPs, what he calls the entire skillset of raising a fund.

“I see a massive opportunity bringing LPs together with GPs at AngelList,” Woo says.

Woo says most of the LPs investing in funds through AngelList are accredited high-net-worth individuals, and those operating family and multifamily offices.

He says the platform is talking with institutional LPs, such as university endowments, to take a more active role in the site and invest in funds.

As part of its 2018 year in review, AngelList said more than 250 angels and VCs currently rely on its platform for capital and fund infrastructure.

Woo on Feb. 5 published a LinkedIn post in which he said AngelList will become the most important player in venture capital in the next 10 years.