By: Justin Taubman MBA Candidate ‘16
Welcome back to snowy College Park. I hope that everyone had a safe return. The Dingman Center is happy to announce a successful fall of 2015 for the Dingman Center Angels (DCA). Several of the Angel group’s members were involved in seven investments during the fall semester (June – January).
For those not familiar with the Dingman Center Angels, it is a group of angel investors who provide funding to early-stage companies from around the area. The group looks to invest $100,000 to $1,000,000 in seed/early stage companies, and often syndicates with other angel groups and venture capital funds (VCs) for deals up to $2 million. DCA is not a fund and does not invest as a group. The fund’s members collaborate on due diligence but make individual investment decisions. Each member makes their own thorough review of all information, including speaking with representatives of the company.
Here is a quick run-down of the companies that our Angels invested in over the past semester:
The hardware/software company NetBeez raised its first round with help from a member of DCA in June. NetBeez enables companies with a large network infrastructure to quickly troubleshoot and repair network problems, cutting costs and reducing network downtime. They use hardware and software monitoring agents to immediately detect which enterprise locations are affected by network outages or performance issues.
In August, several DCA members participated in a follow-on investment round in the software company, SalesWarp. SalesWarp focuses on simplifying and streamlining the critical business processes associated with managing a successful E-commerce business. The company provides retailers of all sizes and business needs with tools to deliver an omnichannel experience across all channels, ensuring customers receive the experience they expect, shopping the way they want.
The consumer kiosk company CardIsle raised its first round of angel funding from DCA in
September. The company produces consumer facing kiosks that as the name suggests can replace the greeting card isle in a single box, offering meaningful, customized greeting cards. This company adds value to any retail store that sells greeting cards by transforming the “atoms” of the greeting card isle to “bits” in a digital kiosk, thus greatly reducing the required real estate.
The software company Delight Me received a portion of its initial investment in November from a member of DCA. Delight Me is an integrated life management, coaching, client relationship, and digital marketing solution for individuals and enterprises to set goals, track progress, and receive feedback from trusted advisors. Delight Me seamlessly integrates people, data, and goals using a unique closed-loop framework. By making it easy to provide and receive encouragement, course corrections, and advice, subscribers achieve better results in less time. Professional service providers, such as advisors, consultants, trainers, teachers, and coaches use Delight Me’s data collection, graphing, and messaging platform to attract, engage, and Delight clients on a sustained basis. Professionals use Delight Me to reach their target customers with timely information, advice, and products needed to achieve their goals.
November also included participation by several DCA members in the initial round of investment in the bi
g data analytics company, Yet Analytics. Yet Analytics uses big data to improve the decision making process of human capital professionals by making the data of the connected world more visible, accessible, and actionable.
In December, GoldLasso raised money from DCA. This advertising and marketing tech company provides marketers truly native email monetization to deliver a better advertising experience to subscribers.
The most recent investment in January with the company, Eventuosity. This company has streamlined comprehensive event management through their simple software solution.
We are looking forward to another busy semester of investment activity. Make sure to read our biweekly newsletter, The Pitch for more information about our portfolio companies.