Equity crowdfunding has become an important financial source in start-up growth and it is critical for a start-up to succeed the equity crowdfunding (ECF) campaign to obtain the funding they needed. While researches have been focusing on the success likelihood of equity crowdfunding campaign and follow-on funding, but unfortunately had neglected one of the most important and definitive determinants for these successes, which is the pre-funding. This research intends to reveal the importance of pre-funding and the effect of pre-funding on ECF and post-funding success. In this study, we hand-collected data U.S. equity crowdfunding data from the period of 2016 Q2 to 2020 Q1 with 876 of campaign observations. This study provides evidence for the important role of pre-funding to the firm’s equity crowdfunding success and to the chance in obtaining additional funding. We find business angels play a significant role in their investment to the early-stages firms, not only to fill in the financing gap for younger firms but contributes to the campaign success as well as post-funding success, especially if the investment was done before the firms went to the equity crowdfunding. The complementarity of business angels and the crowd investors also brings significant benefits for the firm’s investment success.

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