Niagara Angel Network – Investment

ByMaurice

Description:

The Niagara Angels typically invest 100,000-$1,000,000 in seed/early stage companies, and syndicate deals with other Angel groups across Ontario. Because of the business expertise of the membership, the group is very receptive to a wide variety of sectors and investment opportunities.

Comments on Funding:

The Niagara Angels is not a fund and does not invest as a group. Their members collaborate on due diligence but make individual investment decisions. They typically invest from $100,000-$1,000,000.

Eligibility:

Applicants (companies) must:

  • be looking to raise between $100,000 and $1,000,000 from investors;
  • have a proven technology, product or service;
  • have a business poised for rapid growth;
  • be willing to give up equity in their business;
  • have a reasonable valuation and exit strategy for investors.

The Niagara Angels typically evaluate a company with the following criteria:

  • Fundable Management Teams: Companies’ management teams must have a proven track record of success. This might be in their sector of expertise or through their experience in prior start-up companies. Aside from strong leadership capabilities, we like teams that are comfortable receiving input from our investors. They must be coachable!
  • Size of the market opportunity: They will invest in companies and technologies that solve major problems in large target markets. Companies should have identified a distinct, and growing, market segment. In another words, there must be significant demand for your proposed solution. Customer validation is key!
  • Sales/Marketing: There must be a clear sales strategy and channels to market. Companies must be able to scale the business to succeed.
  • Competitive advantage: Companies must have properly identify potential competitors. Niagara Angels would like to see a competitive advantage in the form of proprietary technology/IP or channel to market. Companies need to be either in an under serviced niche market or clearly have a significant competitive advantage in a crowded market space.
  • Technology: They like to see that the technology has been validated. They want to know it can be supported by empirical data and/or credible third-party experts.
  • Intellectual property: Companies need to make sure that their IP does not infringe on patents or trademarks held by others. Hence, Niagara Angels like to see that steps were taken to protect companies’ intellectual property. This involves exhaustive search and due diligence.
  • Sales strategy: Companies have a plan to achieve widespread market penetration for their products and services efficiently (internal, direct sales or via external channel partners). They must be able to manage the scale the business to succeed.
  • Profit potential. Companies can demonstrate how healthy margins and consistent revenue, cash flow growth will be achieved.
  • Capital needs/Use of funds: Typically, Niagara Angels’ members are prepared to invest individually anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 per deal to finance such things as product development, working capital, sales or marketing. Their investments are focused on rapid growth of the company and on the company’s ability to hit key milestones.
  • Exit strategy: All Angel investors want a viable exit strategy. While Angels are patient, they strive to generate returns of at least 10 times their initial investment within five to eight years.

About the author

Maurice

Maurice (Moe) Muise learned the ins-and-outs of government while an employee of the Government of Canada in Ottawa for 10 years. His current focus is helping small businesses in Ontario to identify and maximize government grants to grow their business. Click here to learn more about Moe’s background and how he can help your business.

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