A new angel investor fund is looking for potential investment partners in Baton Rouge to raise some $4 million that will be used to help fund startup businesses along the 10/12 corridor.
The fund, South Coast Angel Fund II, will be the second fund created by South Coast, a New Orleans-based entity established four years ago that creates early-stage venture capital funds. The first South Coast Angel Fund raised $2 million and invested between $300,000 and $500,000 each in five startups, including two in Baton Rouge and three in New Orleans.
Fund executive Jon Atkinson says the second angel fund will be about twice as large, and that plans call for the creation of additional South Coast angel funds in the future.
“The capital community in south Louisiana is not well-organized,” says Atkinson. “That is the pain a lot of entrepreneurs are feeling.”
South Coast is one of the few committed angel funds in the state, which means members invest in the fund up front, decide collectively on which startup companies to fund and share in any returns. Several Baton Rouge investors are a part of the first South Coast Angel Fund, which locally helped fund Bascom Hunter, a wireless communication technology development company, and Omniacademy, a social networking platform for colleges and universities.
Atkinson says Bascom Hunter and the other three New Orleans companies in which the fund initially invested are doing well. Omniacademy is no longer in business, he says.
South Coast Angel Fund II will have a Baton Rouge chapter, where members can gather to hear startup pitches, which will be made twice a month in person to the membership.
“The plan is to set up video conference so if you can come to Baton Rouge they can see you in New Orleans and vice versa,” Atkinson says. “But our goal is to be a regional fund focused on the Gulf Coast and down the corridor, which gives us a bigger pool to draw from.”
This evening from 6 to 8 p.m., Atkinson will lead a free educational session on Angel Investing 101 at the offices of Kean Miller downtown. Register to attend.
