New York Angels is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, during which time our members have invested nearly $200M in over 300 companies. We wrapped up a strong first half of the year with investments in Aline, Soopra and CorralData. In this edition you can watch our interview with Stephen Kines, co-founder of Goldilock, and read perspectives from NYA Member Tom Blum. Also, NYA Member Brian Neer participated in a forum at the White House to discuss America's Partnership for Economic Prosperity.
JUNE INVESTMENTS
NYA Members have invested $441k in a combination of new and follow-on investments in June. Some of the highlights are detailed below.
JUNE INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS
Aline is an AI-powered smart legal document that helps business teams revolutionize the way legal contracts are handled. Aline's platform enables workflows, transparency, tracking of critical contract data, electronic signature and more for organizations stuck in Word and Excel. CEO & Co-Founder Brent Farese is ideally placed to maximize the opportunity, leveraging his engineering background with his career as an attorney. The deal was led by MaryAnn Bekkedahl, Michael Costa, and Steve Shwartz.
Soopra is the first AI powered Persona Engine platform that allows businesses and individuals to create AI personas that are owned and trained by themselves instead of generic data. The system is trained by personal data, via interactions and uploads to create AI personas with specific deep knowledge. NYA members invested because not only is AI personas a hot area, but we believe that Soopra is more scalable and faster than other platforms. Michael Costa led this deal.
NYA Members have invested in CorralData for the second time, after leading their seed round last year. CorralData is a full-service, AI-powered analytics platform that radically simplifies centralizing and analyzing data across multiple sources. CorralData provides businesses with comprehensive tools to easily turn data into actionable insights. CEO & Co-Founder Alex Lirtsman built long-term relationships with Pfizer, Lacoste and Sweetgreen, which became clients for CorralData, and helped bring on new clients adding to their extensive portfolio and tremendous growth. Alyssa Tam, Endri Tolka, Bill Pertusi led the deal.
FOUNDER SPOTLIGHT
Stephen Kines is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Goldilock – a revolutionary cybersecurity company. Stephen is an international corporate lawyer and former military officer. Stephen discusses the importance of investors aligning with Goldilock's geopolitical focus, New York Angels' thorough due diligence process, and why a personal relationship with angel investors is important.
COMPANY NEWS
LIQUID DIAMONDS
Liquid Diamonds was recently featured in In-Store Magazine for launching a new B2B sourcing platform for natural diamonds. Liquid Diamonds’ patented reverse auction system allows wholesale diamond buyers and retail jewelers to compare diamond prices, seamlessly purchase diamonds, and instantly liquidate inventory when necessary. Read Article
COMPANY NEWS
NYSHEX
Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), the world’s largest containerline, is partnering with NYSHEX to enhance the digitalization of ocean freight. MSC will integrate NYSHEX’s technology to gain real-time insights into their contract performance to give them greater visibility of ocean contracts, with real-time monitoring and automated alerts on booking patterns. Read Announcement
COMPANY NEWS
TINY TAP
TinyTap and Open Campus hosted EDU Denver to unite education and Web3 leaders on June 24, 2024. Experts discussed the expansion of the decentralized education ecosystem at the event, which featured inspiring talks, hands-on demonstrations, networking opportunities, and entertainment. Read About Event
COMPANY NEWS
TRUE MADE FOODS
True Made Foods Pitmaster Carolina BBQ Rubs was named one of the 11 best BBQ rubs and seasonings, according to experts on CNN Underscored. True Made Foods developed the rubs with Barbecue Hall of Fame pitmaster Ed Mitchell. This set of no-sugar-added rubs comes with an all-purpose rub, a pork rub and a rib rub, all based in classic Carolina BBQ flavors. See Entire List of Best BBQ Rubs
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Thomas Blum joined New York Angels in 2004 as one of our earliest members. Tom spent twenty years as an investment banker, and has since an active early stage investor with a focus in cleantech. Tom shares how NYA Founder David Rose shared an office with him, his 72x return from NYA Member Dan Chait's start-up, and why NYA members like to see companies again even if they didn't invest in them the first time.
NYA MEMBER EVENT
20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
New York Angels celebrated its 20th Anniversary this year. As one of the oldest, most prominent angel investment groups in the country, New York Angels has supported early-stage founders for twenty years in the New York area and now nationally and internationally. New York Angels was also the inaugural member of the Angel Capital Association. Over the past two decades, NYA Members have invested over $167 million in 330+ companies. One of our favorite events of the year is our NYA Member Summer Party, and this year we had something extra special to celebrate.
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
NEER VENTURE PARTNERS BRIAN NEER
NYA Member Brian Neer represented Neer Venture Partners in a forum at the White House to discuss the "Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity." Neer discussed the significant opportunities in Latam for early-stage investing and the impact of building many types of businesses that are taken for granted in the U.S. Read About Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity
SC MEDIA
With An Eye to AI, Cybersecurity Sector Investment Rebounds
Over the past couple of years, we have seen an increase in the number of cyber-security funding opportunities. This trend has been echoed in a recent article stating that seed and pre-seed investment in cybersecurity is up for the first half of this year and is on pace to beat 2023, fueled by the overwhelming interest in generative artificial intelligence.
Investment Forum (Hybrid):
• July 15th (9:00 AM - 12:30 PM)
September Screening (Hybrid):
• September 9th (9:00 AM - 1:00 PM)
FOUNDER DEADLINES
September Screening Application:
• Due August 12th
*New York Angels, Inc. ("NYA") is a not-for-profit corporation that is funded by membership dues for individuals and/or entities that NYA has designated as members as well as from certain sponsors. Its purposes include providing administrative support to its members. NYA does not invest in companies. Investments, if made, are made by individual members of NYA.
