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While August may be a month with no formal NYA meetings, it has certainly been a busy month for New York Angels Members and our portfolio companies. Since our last newsletter, NYA Members made three new investments in: Finresi, MyBiometry, and Velico Medical. NYA Members also invested in follow-on rounds in: Atraverse Medical, Bodhi, Gameway, Goldilock, Kasisto, NYSHEX, Ora Graphene Audio, and VesprSolar. Read exciting news from some of other portfolio companies like Cynomi, Canary and EnergySage. Also, watch interviews with NYA Member Josh Powe and Zylö Therapeutics CEO & Co-Founder Scott Pancoast. Finally, see how our partner ECCO Design is helping founders bring their ideas to market with breakthrough design and innovation.
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JULY & AUGUST INVESTMENTS
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NYA Members have invested $2M in July and August across portfolio companies.
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JULY & AUGUST INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS
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New York Angels Members have invested in Atraverse Medical for a third time in the latest follow-on round. The Atraverse team team exemplifies the classic formula for medical device innovation combining a talented and experienced engineer (Eric Sauter) with a practicing clinician inventor (Dr. Steven Mickelson) and serial entrepreneur (John Slump). They identified the opportunity to develop an improved transseptal crossing system, which makes related procedures faster, simpler, safer, and less expensive through technology and a regulatory pathway well within the capabilities of a lean startup. Mauri Rosenthal and Ray Farrell led this follow-on round.
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Bodhi is the leading customer experience platform in the solar industry. With Bodhi’s unique platform, solar installers can integrate their CRMs and other solar business management softwares to create engaging customer experiences and automate communications, tracking not only design and installation, but also post-commissioning performance and cost savings. The deal was led by Seth Masters and Tom Blum.
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Finresi allows investors to invest in property loans and participate in real estate debt without being a property owner. The company's mission is to revolutionize the investment landscape by providing a secure, transparent, and accessible online platform for debt investments. Co-Founder & CEO Jeff Gopshtein helped the company pivot from its original idea of being a marketplace for buying apartment buildings to focus on investing in loans instead. Tonny Ho and Josh Powe managed closing the round.
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As the world's first premium video game lounge located in airports, Gameway continues to secure significant traction as a truly unique product. Gameway offers an immersive gaming experience with an expanded range of luxury gaming stations, industry-leading amenities, comfortable seating, large monitors, and services that take the airport experience to the next level. Co-founders and husband-and-wife team, Jordan and Emma Walbridge, have a great vision and upbeat personalities that have led Gameway to establishing seven major airport locations. Gameway will open its newest location at JFK this Fall. Jeff Seltzer led this follow-on investment.
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In another follow-on round, New York Angels invested in Goldilock, a revolutionary cybersecurity solution that allows individuals and institutions to physically disconnect and connect data and devices to and from the internet. Goldilock's unique, patented, non-IP controlled hardware approach to cybersecurity reduces the cyber-attack surface for defense and critical national infrastructures. When Goldilock first presented to NYA in 2023, the company became the first U.K. company that NYA Members invested in. Robert Hedlund and Tom Hirschfeld were the lead contacts for NYA.
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Kasisto offers consumers and bankers an easy way to interact as the leading conversational AI platform for the financial services industry. Kasisto provides services for global banks such as J.P. Morgan, Westpac, Standard Chartered, TD, and Nedbank, and US community banks and credit unions – and many more. New York Angels made its first investment in Kasisto's Seed Round in 2014. Jeff Seltzer led the deal.
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myBiometry is a platform that remotely monitors and manages patients with asthma using software and biomarker data generated from proprietary sensors. New York Angels Members invested in the company for the first time due to its proprietary design that can help stop asthma attacks before they happen by measuring biomarkers of airway inflammation, specifically fractional exhaled nitric oxide in a patient’s breath. Hugh Cullman and Vijay Aggarwal helped finalize NYA Members' investment.
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NYSHEX is revolutionizing the container shipping industry for both carriers and shippers through two key innovations: a new standard form freight contract and new way to trade ocean freight digitally. This is the fifth time NYA Members have invested in NYSHEX. NYA Members first invested in NYSHEX in a late 2016 bridge round before a major investment from Goldman Sachs, GE Ventures, and Blumberg Capital in March 2017. Hapag Lloyd, a top 10 carrier also invested in this round. Gordon has deep domain knowledge and has been able to attract and lead an excellent team to execute on the NYSHEX plan, often exceeding budget revenue goals. This deal was led by Michael Ehrlich and Seth Masters.
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Ora Graphene has secured yet another round of investment from New York Angels Members as the company continues to gain significant traction. Gamers, award-winning music professionals and everyday music lovers agree Ora Graphene's superior sound technology will become the future of music. Ora Graphene is the world’s first commercial producer of free-standing graphene membranes, which significantly improve sound quality and reduce energy consumption for global manufacturers of consumer electronics. With Bill Pertusi as a Board Observer and Edward Levine as NYA's liason with TandemLaunch, these two NYA Members were the lead contacts for financing this round.
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Velico Medical is on a mission to eliminate preventable death from bleeding. Velico develops and commercializes products for use in preparing and storing platelets and plasma, including a companion instrument and disposable product for spray drying plasma. The company has developed a series of important partnerships with civilian, government and military blood center leadership, trauma surgeons, emergency medical physicians, military medics and first responders worldwide. Velico has also received support from federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Elaine Gilde and Vijay Aggarwal managed the leading the investment for New York Angels Members.
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New York Angels first invested in VesprSolar in its seed round in 2023 and recently invested again in this revolutionary solar hardware company. VesprSolar's V-Clamp is the highest performing attachment solution in the rapidly growing solar industry, and provides increased security, installation speed, and affordability. The V-Clamp Panel Attachment System is a two-time winner of the American-Made Solar Prize, recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy and NREL as a Top 10 innovation in solar. Adam Schneider and Thomas Blum were the deal leads for NYA.
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Scott Pancoast is the CEO and Founder of Zylö Therapeutics. Scott shares his advice for founders and investors based on his variety of leadership experiences in 14 early-stage companies as a founder, executive, investor, and board member. Before Zylö, he ran Lpath, a biotech company that went public under his leadership and built worldwide partnerships with Pfizer, Merck-Serono, Biogen Idec, and J&J. In the interview, Scott discusses how to be efficient when fundraising, how NYA Members invested in both Zylö's Series A and Series B, and the #1 job of a CEO.
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COMPANY NEWS
CANARY
Canary is one of the few cameras in production that has any environmental capabilities. Its best features include: 1) Crystal-clear image quality, 2) Climate sensors (temperature, humidity, air quality), and 3) Futuristic design. Security.org recently featured Canary including videos and images showing Canary's outstanding capabilities, specifically highlighting its revolutionary built-in climate monitoring.
Read Article
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COMPANY NEYWS
CYNOMI
Cynomi was named as one of the Top 5 Best Compliance Solutions in 2024 by SC Media. Cynomi helps its partners bridge the cybersecurity skill gap, scale their business, and offer new services. Using AI and CISO-level insights, Cynomi's platform helps automate and streamline vCISO tasks, reducing risk assessment time by 40-60%, report generation time by 80%, and improving onboarding time by 80%. Users also see a 60% increase in revenue from existing clients.
See Complete Award List
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COMPANY NEWS
ENERGYSAGE
EnergySage has helped over 50,000 homeowners shop for clean home energy solution, making it the first platform of its kind with this footprint. EnergySage is helping make clean energy more accessible and affordable for everyone with a dedicated network of installers. Solar Industry Magazine
recognized EnergySage for its national expansion.
Read Article
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COMPANY NEWS
FILMUSTAGE
Filmustage recently raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Raw Ventures. In the article, Filmustage shares its pitchdeck for its newest funding round. The platform uses AI to analyze scripts in various categories including characters, locations, and props and performs other tasks like creating shooting schedules and analyzing scenes for risk elements like sex and weapons, which saves filmmakers time and money.
Read Full Business Insider Article
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COMPANY NEWS
IC360
IC360 (formerly named U.S. Integrity) has become widely recognized as the leader in third-party integrity monitoring for sports betting and gaming. Bloomberg featured a full spread on how U.S. Integrity changed the industry by providing a complete view across the industry and upholding sportsbooks to maintain integrity by monitoring both sides of the counter.
Read Full Bloomberg Article
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COMPANY NEWS
SOCURE
Socure continues to push the boundaries in digital identity verification and fraud prevention and has secured 2,400+ clients including 17 of the top 20 banks, 13 of the top 15 credit card issuers, leading Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) providers, and over 500 fintech companies. Socure has been named one of the Top 250 Fintech Companies globally in a list published by CNBC.
Read Press Release
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Joshua Powe joined New York Angels this past April. Since joining, he has been active with co-leading investment rounds and referring companies. Josh brings expertise from a variety of industry sectors, including digital media, hospitality, and educational technology. Prior to New York Angels, Josh served as co-Founder and CEO of LinkIt!, a web-based K-12 assessment management platform with over $20m in ARR. In this interview, Josh shares how he presented to New York Angels as an entrepreneur in 2014, his "hilarious" experience volunteering to co-lead deals, and why it's important - and hard - for companies to be capital efficient.
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COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
ECCO DESIGN
ERIC CHAN
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ECCO Design, a leading product design innovation firm, is one of NYA's primary sponsors. Eric Chan, President of ECCO Design, is an accomplished inventor, designer and also a dedicated member of NYA. With decades of experience, Eric has worked with prestigious clients such as LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Magic Leap, and Herman Miller. ECCO Design assists inventors, entrepreneurs, and founders at every stage of their journey, from initial concept and design to prototype, MVP, production and funding strategy, sourcing, contract manufacturing, to launch.
Read More About ECCO Design
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NYA MEMBER EVENT
SUMMER LUNCH
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Without formal NYA meetings in August, several New York Angels Members gathered for an informal lunch at 75 Main in Southampton on August 12th. MaryAnn Bekkendahl and Michael Costa organized the event that was attended by NYA Chairman Emeritus Brian Cohen, NYA Co-Founder Elaine Gilde, and longtime and more recent members: Alain Bankier, Alex Goldberg, Kevin Kotler, and James Dooley. Topics ranged from Brian's new Israeli focused fund, Kevin's interest in becoming a board member/observer in an NYA funded company to the quarterly meetup Alex hosts beginning in September when he returns to NYC.
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INC
NEARLY HALF OF ANGEL INVESTORS ARE WOMEN
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Nearly half of angel investors are women, and nearly half of startups looking for angel investment are woman-led. Not only are women funding more deals, they're increasingly leading startups, too. In 2023, female angel investors comprised 46.7% of the market (up from 33.6% in 2021). Women-led companies comprised 46.3% of the organizations looking for angel funding in 2024 (up from 28.6% in 2021)
Read Article
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UPCOMING MEMBER MEETINGS
September Screening (Hybrid):
• September 9th (9:00 AM - 1:00 PM)
Investment Forum (Hybrid):
• September 23rd (9:00 AM - 1:00 PM)
October Screening (Hybrid):
• October 7th (9:00 AM - 1:00 PM)
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FOUNDER DEADLINES
October Screening Application:
• Due September 16th
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