“We
invested $ 2,145,000 in 13 new (to us) companies,” says Sandra Stone, now in
her second year as Chair of the Maine Angels. “Our members made $1.2M in 7 follow on
investments in existing portfolio companies (counting the unusual 2nd
round of Respiratory Motion in 2012 as still ‘new money’).”
The
Maine Angels has grown to 51 members, with 28 of them investing in 2012. New investments include Northern Equity
Investments, Abierto, Avaxia, Pika Energy, Zylo Media, Respiratory Motion, Jam
Hub, JB Therapeutics, Cerahelix, Playrific, Digital Life Technologies, Gelato
Fiasco, and Academic Merit. “With
Northern Equity Investments, Pika Energy, Abierto, and Zylo Media, we were
among the lead investors,” says Stone.
“Since inception in 2003,
42 Maine Angel members (counting both active and alumni) have invested $9.585,800
in 66 deals in 42 companies that have presented at our member meetings.”
Asked
where her best deals were coming from, Stone replied that many were referred by group members, a couple came from our NE ACA Regional Summits, and that accelerator
activities in Maine were a valuable resource.
Maine
Angels Vice Chair Don Gooding has been Executive Director of the Maine Center
for Entrepreneurial Development since October 2010 and also teaches Innovation
Engineering at USM. Don recently recorded a very nice eight minute talk on The Innovation
Village which you can see here. A sample: “We don’t want to live in Silicon Valley; we love it here in Maine.”
In his role at MCED, Gooding works closely with John
Voltz, Executive Director for Blackstone Accelerates Growth, an Innovative,
Maine-focused Entrepreneurship Program.
Blackstone Accelerates Growth was
launched in October, 2011, with the approval of a $3 million grant by the
Blackstone Charitable Foundation. The initiative aims to help Maine transition
to an innovation economy that supports sustained economic growth for years to
come. With a goal of helping Maine companies add an additional 10,000 skilled
jobs over the next 10 years, this initiative desires to establish regional hubs of
innovation and entrepreneurship to serve as catalysts to propel new and
existing businesses to greater levels of profitability and job growth.
2 comments:
Can you add an RSS link on your blog?
Feed added, as requested. Regards.
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