Angel Capital Association (ACA) is the official industry alliance of over 100 of the largest angel investor groups in the United States. Since its founding in 2004, it has played a significant role in bringing together the previously separate angel and venture capital industries, in order to make networking, practices, and innovation in the field of investment easier.
ACA, which grew out of four Angel Organization Summits [1] convened by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2002 and 2003, sponsors an annual summit meeting in a different city each year at which the leaders of the major organized angel groups, together with government leaders, academics and venture capitalists, share best practices and build new ideas based on this knowledge. [2] [3] ACA has become the nationally recognized voice of the angel investment community in the US, mirroring the role that the National Venture Capital Association plays for the venture community. [4] [5] [6] ACA is the official US representative member of the World Business Angels Association.
Since ACA was formed with a charitable purpose of education and research in the field of angel investment, chairmembers and leaders of ACA are frequently involved in educational programs such as the Power of Angel Investing Seminars produced by ACA's affiliated foundation, the Angel Capital Education Foundation. While individual angel investors and angel group leaders participate in ACA events, membership in the organization itself is only for organized groups of angel investors that meet ACA's requirements, [7] and not for individual investors. ACA's website lists angel groups across the nation [8] which bring together investors in local regions or specific industries.
The founding chairman of ACA was James Geshwiler of Common Angels in Boston, who was succeeded by John May of the New Vantage Group in Washington DC. The current chairman of the organization is Tony Shipley of Queen City Angels of Cincinnati. [9]
Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number of employees, annual revenue, scale of operations, etc. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing start-ups in the hopes that some of the companies they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. Start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and they are often from high technology industries, such as information technology (IT), clean technology or biotechnology.
Seed money, also known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor puts capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term seed suggests that this is a very early investment, meant to support the business until it can generate cash of its own, or until it is ready for further investments. Seed money options include friends and family funding, seed venture capital funds, angel funding, and crowdfunding.
A community development financial institution (US) or community development finance institution (UK) - abbreviated in both cases to CDFI - is a financial institution that provides credit and financial services to underserved markets and populations, primarily in the USA but also in the UK. A CDFI may be a community development bank, a community development credit union (CDCU), a community development loan fund (CDLF), a community development venture capital fund (CDVC), a microenterprise development loan fund, or a community development corporation.
Social venture capital is a form of investment funding that is usually funded by a group of social venture capitalists or an impact investor to provide seed-funding investment, usually in a for-profit social enterprise, in return to achieve an outsized gain in financial return while delivering social impact to the world. There are various organizations, such as Venture Philanthropy (VP) companies and nonprofit organizations, that deploy a simple venture capital strategy model to fund nonprofit events, social enterprises, or activities that deliver a high social impact or a strong social causes for their existence. There are also regionally focused organizations that target a specific region of the world, to help build and support the local community in a social cause.
Vibrant Gujarat, also referred to as Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, is a biennial investors' global business event that is held in the state of Gujarat, India. The event is aimed at bringing together business leaders, investors, corporations, thought leaders, policy and opinion makers; the summit is advertised as a platform to understand and explore business opportunities in Gujarat. The summit's primary objective is to promote Gujarat as an attractive investment destination and to facilitate partnerships and collaborations across different sectors. Summit began in 2003 and is now held every two years.
Founded in 2001, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) is a member-based, 501(c)(3) national non-profit organization that unites finance, policy and technology to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy economy.
The Angel Resource Institute (ARI), formerly Angel Capital Education Foundation (ACEF), is an American nonprofit organization that carries out research and educational activities related to the field of angel investing. It was created in 2005 by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation as a sister charity to the Angel Capital Association (ACA), a non-profit organization that represents angel investment groups in North America that was previously founded by Kauffman.
EBAN is an international, not-for-profit organisation whose function is to represent the pan-European early stage investor community, gathering member organisations and individuals from Europe and beyond. Originally targeted only to business angels, today EBAN is a cross sector representative of equity early stage investors.
An angel investor is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. Angel investors often provide support to startups at a very early stage, once or in a consecutive manner, and when most investors are not prepared to back them. In a survey of 150 founders conducted by Wilbur Labs, about 70% of entrepreneurs will face potential business failure, and nearly 66% will face this potential failure within 25 months of launching their company. A small but increasing number of angel investors invest online through equity crowdfunding or organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share investment capital and provide advice to their portfolio companies. The number of angel investors has greatly increased since the mid-20th century.
The history of private equity, venture capital, and the development of these asset classes has occurred through a series of boom-and-bust cycles since the middle of the 20th century. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital experienced growth along parallel, although interrelated tracks.
The Global Security Challenge runs international business plan competitions to find and select the most promising security technology startups in the world. The GSC holds regional selection events and a Security Summit in London to bring together innovators with government, industry and investors. The GSC belongs to InnoCentive, which acquired the original owner OmniCompete in 2012. OmniCompete also launched the Energy Storage Challenge in 2010.
Corporate venture capital (CVC) is the investment of corporate funds directly in external startup companies. CVC is defined by the Business Dictionary as the "practice where a large firm takes an equity stake in a small but innovative or specialist firm, to which it may also provide management and marketing expertise; the objective is to gain a specific competitive advantage." Examples of CVCs include GV and Intel Capital.
Impact investing refers to investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is about an alignment of an investor's beliefs and values with the allocation of capital to address social and/or environmental issues.
The National Angel Capital Organization was established in 2002 as the only national industry association for angel investors in Canada. Its national network now includes 4,200 angel investors, 45 incubators and accelerators, and 44 angel groups. Since its formal incorporation as National Angel Organization (NAO) in 2002, NACO Canada has published The Primer for Angel Investment in Canada (2002) and Age of the Angel: Best Practices for Angel Groups and Investors (2007), and A Practical Guide to Angel Investing, 2nd Edition, published in 2017. NAO changed its name from NAO to NACO in 2008.
The World Business Angels Association (WBAA) is an international, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to stimulate the exchange of knowledge and best practices in the field of global angel capital financing for high-growth and innovative startups.
John May is an American venture capitalist, the Managing Partner of the New Vantage Group, which has organized five angel investing organizations in the Washington, D.C. area since 1999, placing funds into more than 50 companies.
Trish Costello is a Silicon Valley–based entrepreneur and investor. She is the Founder and CEO of Portfolia, a collaborative equity investing platform. She was named as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2014 by Goldman Sachs and Top Ten Women to Watch in Tech in 2015 by Inc magazine. She is recognized internationally for her pioneering work in educating and preparing venture capital investment partners, through the Kauffman Fellows Program. As the founding CEO and CEO Emeritus of the Center for Venture Education, she led the Kauffman Fellows Program for its first ten years. Costello was on the start-up team of the Kauffman Foundation's entrepreneurship center, where for eight years she directed its efforts in venture capital, angel investing, entrepreneur support programs, and programming to accelerate high potential women entrepreneurs. She played a leading role nationally in obtaining greater financial equity investments in women's businesses and in funding initiatives supporting high-growth women entrepreneurs.
OurCrowd is an online global venture investing platform that empowers institutions and individual accredited investors to invest and engage in emerging technology companies at an early stage while still privately held. Based in Jerusalem, the company launched in February 2013, and has since opened overseas branches in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Spain, Singapore, Brazil, and the UAE.
Jennifer Fonstad is an American venture capital investor and entrepreneur. She is the managing partner and a co-founder of the Owl Capital Group, a venture firm based in Silicon Valley. Fonstad was Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) for 17 years. She is also co-founder of angel investing network Broadway Angels. Fonstad has been recognized as a top 100 tech investor on Forbes’ Midas List twice and was named 2016 Venture Capitalist of the Year by Deloitte. She is also a Founding Member of All Raise.
Pascal Cagni, born on October 28, 1961, in Cernay, Alsace, is a French business executive. After participating between 2000 and 2012 in Apple's development as vice-president and general manager of Apple Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA) region, in 2014 he founded the European venture capital investment fund C4 Ventures. In 2017, he was appointed chairman of the board of directors of the Business France French government agency and Ambassador Delegate for International Investments by French President Emmanuel Macron.