Ryan St. John | Published on 11/30/2020
The biggest trends in angel investing, plus 36 premier late-stage companies primarily in technology and life sciences seeking funding, are the showcase at the virtual Investor Capital Expo that kicked-off its first session October 14. The next two live sessions take place October 28 and November 11th.
The Expo is hosted by Keiretsu Forum, the world's largest angel investor network ranked by Pitchbook #1 in two categories: "Most active investors early stage" and "Most active investors late stage." To date it has invested $750 million in 1,000+ companies.
"The Investor Capital Expo aims to show off the best-of-the-best to the angel investment community each year. This year, to continue to provide access to a high-quality deal flow, we pivoted our Expo onto a custom virtual event platform. The enhanced experience enabled hundreds of investors from across North America to interact with expert panels, twelve outstanding presenting companies, and participate in exceptional deal flow. All signals indicate that the next two sessions will be equally successful," said Howard Lubert, Founder of Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic and South-East.
Nearly 50 angel groups, investors from 100+ Family Offices, corporate partners, and approximately 1,500 accredited investors are expected to attend this year's Expo. A full list of presenting companies for each session can be found here. Keiretsu Forum seeks to raise approximately $100 million in total (syndicated) funding for the selected companies, post-Expo.
The Expo also features a full slate of keynotes and panel discussions. Session 1 keynotes included Pat Gouhin, CEO, Angel Capital Association (ACA) – National Outlook for Angel Investing, Rick Timmins, ACA Data Chair – Angel Investing in the Time of COVID, and Matthew Le Merle, Managing Partner, Keiretsu Capital – Blockchain/Fintech Outlook
Accredited investors interested in registering for a full conference pass @$95 can access all the sessions, and attend deep-dive breakout sessions with each presenting company. They can also schedule one-on-one meetings throughout and after the event.
A Most Valuable Company will be selected from each session and named at the end of the Expo. Each of those companies will be awarded a $25,000 investment from Keiretsu Forum to kick-off their respective fundraising. Session 1 companies nominated for MVP are:
*Soteria Battery Group, developing technology that will eliminate lithium battery fires, reduce the weight of lithium-ion batteries and reduce cost.
*InMedix, commercializing a novel class of diagnostics and therapeutics focused on autonomic nervous system (ANS) control of stress responses within the brain.
*Elevat, bringing Industrial IoT capabilities to small to mid-sized OEMs, distributors, and operators