Maine Angels invest $3,345,000 in 20 companies, making 2012 their best year ever

 “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 2^nd 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.

Well done, Maine Angels.

Our previous report on the Maine Angels was published last June.