In most public offerings, investors are classified based on their profiles. Individual investors with relatively less net worth than senior executives, directors, and high-wealth investors are referred to as ______________ investors .

A company has to grow to a certain level before it can successfully raise capital by selling its stock to the public. At different stages, a company has different financing needs; it raises capital by reaching out to different kinds of investors.

Consider this case:

Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook, a social networking website, in February 2004. He recruited his friends Dustin Moskowitz and Chris Hughes to grow the company. In the summer of 2004, their first investor, Peter Thielthe cofounder of PayPalinvested $500,000 into Facebook for a 10.2% stake in the company.

In late 2004, Facebook was valued at $100 million and received funding of $12.7 million from Accel Partners. Facebook kept growing and received $25 million in funding from Greylock Partners and Meritech Capital. After several acquisition attempts and rounds of funding, Microsoft invested $240 million into Facebook for 1.6% of the company in October 2007.

Based on your understanding of investors in different stages of a start-ups financial cycle, which of the following companies or individuals would be referred to as an angel investor?

Accel Partners

Dustin Moskowitz

Meritech Capital

Peter Thiel