Some estimates suggest there are 100,000 startups per month. Not all receive funding, and many that do are funded internally. However, in 2012 approximately 153,000 investors participated in offerings by operating companies, while approximately 81,000 investors invested in offerings by pooled investment funds. Because some investors participate in multiple offerings, so these numbers overestimate the actual number of unique investors in these reported offerings. Only 8% of offerings by pooled investment funds included non-accredited investors.
The SEC estimates that at least 8.7 million U.S. households, or 7.4% of all U.S. households, qualified as accredited investors in 2010, based on the net worth standard in the definition of “accredited investor.” Data from Form D filings in 2012 suggests that fewer than 234,000 investors (of which an unknown subset are natural persons) participated in Regulation D offerings, which is small compared to the 8.7 million households that qualify as accredited investors who control $800 billion of private investment.
