Last year felt like a busy one for startups raising money from local angel investors. Now a new report confirms it.
The Central Texas Angel Network was the most active individual angel group in the country in 2015, according to a new Halo report from Pitchbook and the Angel Resource Institute at Willamette University
Members of CTAN, a nonprofit organization of accredited angel investors, put more than $13.3 million into 43 startups last year. Of those, 20 were new investments and 23 were follow-on investments in existing portfolio companies.
That's a 30 percent increase over activity, although investment dollars dropped from a high of $14.6 million in 2014.
The CTAN portfolio also saw seven exits in 2015, almost doubling the group's total exit activity since its inception in 2006.
Credit: HANDOUT
Credit: HANDOUT
"CTAN has been ranked among the top five angel groups nationally for several years, and being the most active individual angel group reflects the huge volume of time and effort our members and portfolio companies pour into our local startup community," said Claire England, CTAN executive director.
Over the past 10 years, CTAN members have invested more than $68.4 million into 127 companies. The industries receiving the most investments were IT/mobile/software; life sciences/pharma/medical devices and consumer products/food/beverage.
CTAN is made up on more than 150 individual accredited investors, many of them former tech executives and entrepreneurs.
Angel investors provide money and guidance to young companies and typically invest less money and take smaller ownership stakes than do traditional venture capitalists.
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