“So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

James 2: 17

Dear Kingdom Builders,

Ambassadors Impact Network has invested more than $27 million across 60-plus companies and funds since 2018.

But something happens after some of those checks get written.

Co-founder Will Thomas told us at Kingdom Builders Live that the network has sometimes declined to participate in a company’s follow-on funding round after the company drifted from its original integration of Christian values.

In other words, the faith screen didn’t end when the money was wired. That is unusual enough to raise a bigger question:

What exactly are Christian angel investors investing in?

Because it’s more than just Christian founders or missions.

Angel investing itself is enormous.

In 2024, 445,535 active U.S. angel investors deployed $17.9 billion into 55,346 ventures. And 59% of those deals were seed or startup stage.

Traditional angel groups help investors make these bets together. Members share deal flow, hear pitches, conduct diligence, and typically decide for themselves whether to invest, with successful investments expected to generate significant returns.

Christian angel networks use much of the same machinery. But they add another “crucial” layer.

Across Ambassadors, SENT Angels, Brightwater, Beyond Angels, and Keystone Investing, having a Christian founder is generally not enough.

Ambassadors is explicit. Its investment criteria say Christian leadership alone is insufficient if the business has no clear Gospel impact. Its framework examines company values, internal activities, and the product or service itself.

Will shared that as a result of their process, only about 15% of applicants clear both its financial and spiritual screens before deeper diligence.

Other Christian angel networks are surprisingly consistent with this.

John Cannon also shared at Kingdom Builders Live that SENT Angels asks whether a company advances Catholic values and whether management lives its faith through company operations right alongside team, timing, market, and traction.

Brightwater Angels looks for “spiritual integration” in leadership and daily operations plus measurable ways the business serves employees, customers, and communities. Yet it still focuses on post-revenue businesses and seeks an established lead investor.

Beyond Angels requires a faith-driven founder, but also scalable traction, a path to profitability, and a clear exit strategy. It explicitly warns that early-stage capital can influence the direction of a company which is why aligned investors matter.

And Keystone Investing puts the guardrail most plainly: faith informs the process, but it is “never used as a substitute for judgment or diligence.”

Different networks. Different methods. But a surprisingly consistent question: if this company succeeds, what distinctly Christian impact will it create?

To be clear, none of this is philanthropy. The return profile still needs to be there. But the Christian screen adds the defining dimension to the underwriting. A strong mission can strengthen the case, but it can’t rescue weak economics.

Two key questions:

So maybe the more interesting question isn’t whether Christians are investing in Christian companies.

It’s this: What kind of impact can we create when we bring our Christian intent to these companies at their earliest stages?

Have a blessed week.

Matt

John Cannon, founder of SENT Ventures and SENT Angels, and Will Thomas, co-founder of Ambassadors Impact Network, discuss how Christian angel networks evaluate founders, faith alignment, and financial return.

Morningstar argues that faith-based investing has grown into a roughly $200 billion global market, but the label masks major differences in how religious funds define values, screen investments, and construct portfolios even among funds within the same faith tradition.

Katie Couric Media looks at how Angel Studios turned crowdfunding, memberships, and an audience-driven distribution model into a growing Hollywood force and whether that model can scale beyond explicitly Christian entertainment.

Co-investing is when multiple investors or investment groups participate in the same investment.

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