Angels Collaborate Too

Many entrepreneurs need an angel to survive -- an angel investor that is. Angel investors are wealthy individuals able to invest tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars into promising companies. The health of the region's economy depends, in part, on how many high-growth companies get started every year. Angel investors not only help those companies get started, they also help those companies succeed.

Sometimes angel investors organize themselves in networks. There are at least two angel networks in Northeast Ohio and seven throughout the state. Earlier this year all seven of the networks decided to share with each other potential investment opportunities.

Here's how Chuck Soder of Crain's Cleveland Business explained the collaboration in a recent story:

The collaboration, one of the first of its kind nationwide, will help entrepreneurs who need to raise a lot of money do so more quickly, said Clay Rankin, managing member of Cleveland’s North Coast Angel Fund LLC. Mr. Rankin said the angel groups’ agreement also bodes well for the entrepreneurial climate in Northeast Ohio, which is home to the Akron ArchAngels, too.

“I think we’ll have the opportunity to attract more deals and keep more companies here as a result,” he said.

You can learn more about the angel investor network in Akron, called ARCH Angels here and you can access the North Coast Angel Fund web site here.