The national angel investor market, which consists largely of wealthy investors who supply emerging businesses with start-up capital, showed signs of a sustainable recovery in 2004, according to a new report from the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire Whittemore School of Business and Economics.

Some 48,000 start-up companies received angel funding in 2004, a 24 percent increase from 2003. The number of active investors in 2004 was 225,000 people, an increase of 2.5 percent from 2003, with an average of 4 to 5 investors joining forces to fund an entrepreneurial start-up.

“This continued modest rise in total investments is encouraging,” says Jeffrey Sohl, director of the Center for Venture Research.

A sector-by-sector analysis shows software garnered the largest angel investments, followed by healthcare services/medical devices and equipment. The remaining investments were approximately equally weighted across high tech sectors. Angel investments resulted in more than 141,000 new jobs in the United States in 2004, or three jobs per investment.