Press Release: August 7, 2008

LOCAL ‘ANGEL GROUP’
JOINS NATIONAL ANGEL CAPITAL ASSOCIATION

Seeks to Strengthen Expertise For Investing in Local Business Start-ups

(Louisville, KY, Wednesday, August 6, 2008)  – The Louisville Angel Investor Network has joined the national Angel Capital Association in an effort to further enhance its services to its members, who make investments in local growth-oriented companies.

“Angel investors have supported entrepreneurs for decades,” said Tom McMahon, manager of the Louisville Angel Investor Network.  “The economic conditions of the past few years, however, have highlighted that being a good investor and supporter of growth-oriented companies requires attention, discipline and continuous improvement.  Angel groups have been growing as a way to institutionalize these processes.

The Angel Capital Association (ACA) helps by sharing best practices for considering and making investments, linking the expertise of different groups across the country, providing new tools for portfolio management and mentoring promising entrepreneurs. We are excited to be a member and we owe them a sincere debt of gratitude for their assistance in helping to start our organization.”

McMahon said that the group has fifteen members and hopes to attract no more than five additional investors to join the group over the next several months.

Angels are typically high-net-worth individuals and financially successful entrepreneurs interested in mentoring and investing in other entrepreneurs. In the past several years, an increasing number of individual angels have joined together to form angel groups in order to pool resources and investment expertise.

The evolution of angel groups fills an important funding niche between informal investors of family and friends, and formal venture capital.  The number of such angel organizations has tripled since 1999, numbering nearly 295 in today.

ACA itself does not provide funding to entrepreneurs but advances angel investing by supporting the development of successful angel groups through the sharing of best practices and industry data.

The Center for Venture Research estimates that angels provided $26 billion in financing in 2007, up from $23 billion in 2006.  The Center also estimates that there are about 258,000 angel investors in the United States currently, with a projected 1 to 5 million potential angels.

ACA is currently working with a companion organization, the Angel Capital Education Foundation, to implement a confidential survey of angel groups to have the first ever verified dataset of investments made by angel groups.  The Angel Capital Education Foundation worked with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and academic researchers last year on a study of the returns of angels who belong to angel groups and the factors that increase the potential of better returns.

The Louisville Angel Investor Network was formed in November 2007 and held its first investment meeting on March 19, 2008. The Louisville Angel Investor Network seeks investment opportunities, in startup or existing companies, with management teams that are focused on growth and offer the potential for superior investment returns.

Opportunities can be in any industry sector and from any location, with a preference for industry sectors that are well-understood by at least one member of the group and are within a two hour drive of Louisville, Kentucky. The group will also consider opportunities to invest in private equity funds. Investment decisions are made by each individual member.

The group sees great value in active syndication of deals and hopes to participate in deal flow throughout the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Lexington, Louisville, Nashville and Owensboro region. The group has referred each company in its pipeline to groups in this region. More information is available at: http://louisvilleangelnetwork.angelgroups.net.

The Angel Capital Association is the trade association of angel investment groups in North America. Founded by angel investment groups in the United States and Canada to help maximize the success of group based angel investors, ACA accomplishes its mission by providing professional development, best practices, networking and collaboration opportunities for angel investors who belong to member angel groups.  As of August, 2008, 170 angel groups are members of ACA, and those groups represent about 7,000 accredited angel investors.  More information is available at www.angelcapitalassociation.org.

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