Summit

By: Emily Angold, ACA Marketing Manager

The annual Innovation Showcase at the ACA Summit can be a crucial event for participating startup companies to make lasting connections that will ultimately lead to new opportunities.  Companies are nominated by organizations - ACA member angel groups, venture funds, accelerators, and universities government agencies or trade commissions - and selected to make a brief presentation to the entire ACA Summit audience.  Participating companies also spend two and a half days networking, connecting and learning more on how angel investors really think about opportunities across the board.  The “showcase” represents an incredible chance for these underwriters to showcase their best portfolio companies to the angel investors and startup ecosystem leaders at the Summit. 

By Sarah Dickey, ACA Membership Director

The Angel Capital Association had the very distinct honor of awarding Marianne Hudson the Hans Severiens Award at the 2019 ACA Summit in Chicago.  This annual national award recognizes one individual’s work in advancing the field of angel investing.  The criteria for this prominent award include depth of the individual’s impact on advancement of angel investing, leadership in bringing awareness of the field and contribution to the knowledge base of angel investing.  Marianne clearly demonstrates these qualities through her work in founding the association and growing it as ACA’s Executive Director.  ACA has become an important institution for angel investors and the startup ecosystem, providing education, data, smart practices and public policy advocacy for angel investors in every American state and five Canadian provinces.

By Sarah Dickey, ACA Membership Director

Three amazing companies funded by ACA members are finalists for the Luis Villalobos Award, honoring companies for ingenuity, creativity and innovation. The companies are:

  • Aquacycl LLC – San Diego (nominated by Next Wave Ventures and also funded by the San Diego Angel Conference)
  • GrandPad – Orange, CA (nominated by Tech Coast Angels and funded as well by Pasadena Angels and Harvard Business School Angels)
  • Joylux – Seattle (nominated by Alliance of Angels and also funded by numerous ACA member groups:  Golden Seeds, Houston Angel Network, Puget Sound Venture Club, Belle Capital, Keiretsu Forum Northwest, Keiretsu Capital Fund, South Coast Angel Network, Portfolia and Sofia Angel Fund)

By: Sarah Dickey, ACA Membership Director

ACA’s yearly Luis Villalobos Award provides recognition to ingenious and innovative ideas in the startup ecosystem by asking members of the Angel Capital Association to nominate their best portfolio companies recently funded.  Three finalists are selected each year and, with the nominating ACA angel, are honored at the ACA Summit where the winner is announced during the annual awards ceremony in front of 700+ angel investors. 

By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director

Congratulations to Oculogica, a New York City based life sciences company, who was awarded the Luis Villalobos Award this afternoon at the 2018 ACA Summit in Boston.  The Luis Villalobos Award recognizes outstanding ingenuity, creativity and innovation among startups backed by ACA members. 

Oculogica was selected by a committee of leading ACA member angels. The committee welcomes all innovative companies recently funded by ACA members to be part of this program and be considered for the Luis Villalobos Award, which is among the most disruptive and exciting opportunities for angels, the marketplace and innovation.

By: Sarah Dickey, ACA Membership Director

The Angel Capital Association is delighted to announce the four finalists for the Luis Villalobos Award, a highly regarded, North American-wide award that honors ingenuity, creativity and innovation among startups backed by ACA members: Catalyst OrthoScience, CNote, Oculogica and PhotoniCare.  “These companies are at the top of their game and represent the pinnacle of startup innovation and ingenuity,” said ACA Executive Director, Marianne Hudson.  The finalists will be honored and the winner revealed on April 19, 2018 at the world’s largest gathering of angel investors, the 2018 ACA Summit in Boston, MA. 

This award is in honor of Luis Villalobos, who in 1997 founded one of the largest and most respected angel organizations in the world, Tech Coast Angels.  Luis was a leader in the angel investing arena by making 57 personal angel investments, educating angels and always looking to invest in and mentor the most innovative companies.  Luis was a true “leading light” in the angel community. 

By Graeme Thickins, ACA PR Team

Did you ever wish you’d have had a chance to meet or chat with someone at the ACA Summit or any of our other events, but never had the opportunity to run into them? Well, now you can — via brief interviews posted on the new ACA video library. It’s your chance to get to know interesting people, with great insights, better. The full set of ACA videos are posted on our Vimeo channel. You can view these videos without a Vimeo account, or you can create a free account, and then follow any channels of your choice — which we suggest you do with the ACA channel, of course! If you do that, then you’ll be notified whenever there’s a new video posted on our channel.

By Graeme Thickins, ACA PR Team

Following on from Part 1 of our recap on the 2017 ACA Summit in San Francisco, we have more great insights to pass along from the event. The following is a summary of notes gathered by members of another angel group that attended the event.

Summit Insights from Victoria Barnard and Aviva Ajmera, Women’s Capital Connection

By Graeme Thickins, ACA PR Team

More than 650 angel investors came together for a very full three days of learning and networking at the 2017 ACA Summit in San Francisco April 26-28. Attendees represented 42 American states, 5 Canadian provinces, 18 countries, and more than 36% were women – a new record for the annual ACA event. It would take a book to fully recap the entire event, but here are some notes and quotes that will give you a taste of what transpired.

By: Marianne Hudson, ACA Executive Director

It was with great enthusiasm that the Angel Capital Association honored Catherine Mott with the prestigious Hans Severiens Award at last week’s 2017 ACA Summit.  The Hans Severiens Award is presented annually to recognize one individual’s work in advancing the field of angel investing. Catherine is a great representative of the spirit of the award, with impacts ranging from developing and educating angel best practices to regulatory policy work to advocating for startups and helping expand the diversity of the angel investing community.

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ACA On the Road by Angel Capital Association  on  March 11
ACA Announces Keynote Speaker for Summit: Kwame Anku by Angel Capital Association  on  March 08