Colorado Angel Funding Remains Strong Despite National Economic Downturn
Investors are shifting cash to the stability of long-term investments. Angel investors at Rockies Venture Club closed three deals in March with Colorado companies Wander + Ivy, PageDip, and ClinOne.
DENVER, April 15, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Despite disruption and uncertainty in the public markets, investors at Rockies Venture Club (RVC) continue to make seed stage investments to support a thriving startup community in Colorado. RVC's syndicates invested in three companies in March, bringing the total number of investment deals to seven for 2020. RVC Director of Operations, Dave Harris, says that the club expects to make twenty-five investments by the end of the year.
Investors are turning to startups and venture capital investments that don't have the volatility of the public markets in recent times. Because the timeline for angel investments can be three to five years or more, the economy should be going strong by the time the club receives returns on today's investments. Peter Adams, RVC's Executive Director, says "angel investments are a lot less risky than people think. Angels who invest in groups typically see portfolio returns of 25% or more each year - and most of that is tax-free due to angel tax incentives."
RVC is excited for the prospects of the three companies that closed deals in the month of March.
Wander + Ivy offers a single-serve wine experience that combines the exquisite taste and terroir of organic wines from sustainable producers with convenient, premium packaging. The company purchases premium bulk wine from award-winning, family-owned vineyards around the world at a discount, ships the wine via flexitanks to a co-packer to bottle, private label, and package, then sells their single-serve wine bottles or varietals gift sets to distributors and consumers at a premium. Wander + Ivy is targeting the $69M single-serve wine market with a focus on female millennials, semi-regular wine drinkers and active, health-conscious + environmentally friendly consumers prone to buying organic. Wander + Ivy first began selling their product in October 2018 and has sold over 28K bottles, generating $100K in revenue with distribution across 4 states.
PageDip allows knowledge workers to easily bring depth to documents, enabling the reader to read (text), watch (video) and explore (interact) all in the same place. The technology turns a linear reading experience into a multidimensional exploration with the added benefit that content is kept current in a centralized and secure location. PageDip is a cloud-based content authoring environment for businesses who need an in-house solution to better generate, control and update internal or external facing content. The content creation tool is easy to use and intuitive, requiring simple drag and drop actions to create a page.
ClinOne is a healthcare IT company providing a cloud-based information and document sharing platform that connects pharmaceutical companies to clinical trial sites and patients globally. They are selling directly to Research Sites and Pharma Sponsors, and have been utilized in over 2,500 active clinical trials across 53 countries. The company is now aiming to take advantage of an opportunity in the clinical trial management systems space. Clinical study coordinators are forced to interact with multiple vendors to manage a study. ClinOne is now aiming to be the singular vendor for cost-effective and seamless clinical study administration. They have multiple modules they are building into the platform, aiming to upsell Research Site and Pharma Sponsor clients. They are currently engaged with 14 of the top 20 Pharma companies worldwide, and have Research Site customers, such as Stanford University.
Rockies Venture Club Executive Director, Peter Adams, added, "these companies represent the diversity of great quality startups coming out of Colorado. They range from consumer goods to business-to-business SaaS software to a platform for managing medical clinical trials. Rockies Venture Club has leveraged the diverse expertise among its two hundred investors to be able to source, do due diligence and negotiate deals in such a broad spectrum of business types."
Over the last 5 years, RVC has invested in a diverse range of companies from a variety of industries. Although RVC's investment focus is primarily in Colorado, that hasn't stopped the organization from investing in startups around the country; leveraging strong syndicate partners as part of the Angel Capital Association. Also, with funding rounds ranging from $200k-$2M, RVC has helped start-ups of all sizes to reach their financial and operational goals in a quick and efficient manner while providing ongoing support to a portfolio of one hundred twenty investment rounds in about fifty companies. Regardless of the size and industry of the start-up, RVC works to help its investors find transparent investment opportunities that meet their risk and return expectations while simultaneously guiding entrepreneurs to creating easy to understand business plans and investor pitches.
About the Rockies Venture Club: Rockies Venture Club is the oldest and one of the largest Angel Groups in the U.S.A., founded in 1985, whose mission is to advance economic development by actively connecting the most promising entrepreneurial companies with Angel investors, venture capitalists, and other community members. Every year Rockies Venture Club offers over 140 educational programs, mastermind groups, Angel forums, and two major conferences for both investors and entrepreneurs.
300 Angels Project: To keep up with growing demand for capital in the state, the Rockies Venture Club is growing by adding one hundred new angel investors to the group in 2020, bringing it to a total of over three hundred angels. The organization is successful in making profitable investments because of its education programs for both angel investors and entrepreneurs, plus its ability to leverage the skills and wisdom of so many investors to conduct due diligence and make good investment decisions.
SOURCE Rockies Venture Club
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