Angel network celebrates 20th anniversary, a new chapter fund, membership growth, expedited due diligence, a new web site, and 14 funded companies as part of its annual achievements
LOS ANGELES – December 29, 2020 – Twenty appears to be a lucky number for Tech Coast Angels’ Los Angeles (TCA-LA) Chapter. The angel network celebrated its 20th birthday this year, announced that it invested more than $5 million into seven new companies and 14 companies in total, and its membership grew 20% this year. Despite the global pandemic and concerns of an economic crisis, there was plenty more good news for TCA-LA: it accelerated the speed of its deal process, created a new web site, realized its first annual chapter fund, and is in the process of raising capital for a second annual fund that will close in the very near future. Of the 14 companies funded by TCA-LA in 2020, all but one of the companies are headquartered on the West Coast, and nine are in Southern California.
“We are absolutely thrilled with the success of our first annual chapter fund, especially given the significant headwinds startups faced in 2020,” said TCA-LA president, Brian Horner. “Not only was our first fund fully deployed, but we were also able to raise a second fund for 2021 with even more participation from members. Entrepreneurs who pitched our group this year have all reacted extremely positively to the expedited deal process, as well as the guaranteed minimum investment size the fund provides. All told, TCA’s Los Angeles chapter funded 14 companies in 2020 for a total of nearly $5m, up significantly from 2019.”
Companies funded or led by TCA-LA members in 2020 are:
- Comfreight (Digital Media – Web/App Product or Service)
- Elevate K-12 (Digital Media – Web/App Product or Service)**
- Fitplan (Digital Media – Web/App Product or Service)*
- Hawthorne Effect (Life Sciences/Healthcare)
- Makani Science (Life Sciences/Healthcare)**
- Nevados Engineering (Clean Tech/Industrial)*
- Noria Water Technologies (Clean Tech/Industrial)
- NovaSignal / Neural Analytics (Life Sciences/Healthcare)
- Razberi Technologies (Hardware/Software Technologies)**
- Ready, Set, Food! (Consumer Product or Service)*
- Recess (Digital Media – Web/App Product or Service)
- Saasuma (Hardware/Software Technologies)
- SIZZLE (Digital Media – Web/App Product or Service)**
- Somabar (Consumer Product or Service)
- AI (Life Sciences/Healthcare)
- Turn Technologies (Digital Media – Web/App Product or Service)
- VIRTANZA (Other)*
- YBVR (Digital Media – Web/App Product or Service)*
* Company deal led by TCA-LA and also funded as part of LA Fund 2020
** Deal not led by TCA-LA, but recognized as part of LA Fund 2020 investment
The company also announced its new website this past week, https://tcala.weebly.com.
Mr. Horner concluded by looking forward to 2021. “From a membership perspective, the fund has also been very beneficial to our chapter. Not only did membership increase by 20% last year, but we’ve also seen a marked increase in member engagement. As LPs in our chapter fund, members now have more collective skin in the game, and have become more active scouting for new companies, participating in the deal process, and most importantly, using their expertise and wealth of contacts to help our portfolio companies develop. Our membership, and its collective experience, has always been TCA’s most valuable asset, and it’s the reason companies come to us for funding. We essentially have 400+ venture partners to call upon anytime.”
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