JumpStart has made a new USD1 million commitment to support the operations of the North Coast Angel Fund (NCAF) until 2022. The Cleveland-based venture development organisation – which helped underwrite the creation of NCAF in 2006 – has now committed a total of USD4.1 million in operating support to the angel fund over 16 years.
NCAF is Northeast Ohio's first professionally managed angel fund and has focused on early-stage technology investments. To date, NCAF and its members have directly invested more than USD30 million in 40 portfolio companies that have gone on to raise USD450 million in follow-on funding from more than 30 other venture capital firms, banks and strategic partners.
"JumpStart's goal is to unlock the full potential of diverse and ambitious entrepreneurs to economically transform Northeast Ohio," said JumpStart CEO Ray Leach. "We realised back in 2006 that in order for Northeast Ohio's high-tech entrepreneurial ecosystem to thrive, it would also need a professionally managed for-profit angel fund to aggregate local angels and invest in local startups."
"Angels invested USD24.1 billion in U.S. startups in 2014," adds Leach. "They are a critically important component of every regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. That's why we helped create NCAF and why we continue to support the fund today."
"The goal of NCAF and its more than 200 members is to leverage the group's collective expertise in high-growth entrepreneurship, technology sectors and functional disciplines to accelerate many of the region's highest potential early-stage companies," says NCAF Managing Director Todd Federman. "With the support of JumpStart and other community leaders, we have been able to achieve this goal, and we look forward to a continued partnership."
In addition to its continued operating support of NCAF, JumpStart recently announced two USD10 million investment funds – the renewal of JumpStart's Evergreen Fund and the creation of a new fund for women and minority entrepreneurs called the Focus Fund. In addition JumpStart recently announced a new USD20 million for-profit fund called the NEXT Fund.
