This article analyses the recent development of business angel networks (BANs) in Chile, in order to understand the limitations of the current public policies to encourage informal venture capital and especially the BANs. We describe the evolution of this policy and apply a semi-structured interview to managers of Chilean BANs. The poor results in total investments in the case of Chilean BANs allow us to understand how government programmes exclusively oriented towards the supply of the informal venture capital market are insufficient to promote the dynamism of this industry. It is necessary to implement articulated programmes both from the supply and demand side, accompanied by the continuous evaluation of their results. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.