Waterloo, Ontario | April 27, 2021 – A new angel investment network founded by a consortium of superangels has completed an oversubscribed first closing of $10 million. Archangel Network of Funds, based in the Toronto-Waterloo corridor, will invest in early-stage high growth Canadian technology companies across a wide range of sectors. Founded by leaders in the angel investment community, Archangel general partners are Benton Leong, Randall Howard, Jacky Chen, Ellen Fang, David Rich, Ehsan Mirdamadi, and Peyvend Melati joined by Amber French, Todd Bissett, Danielle Graham, and Aislinn Shoveller. The founding team builds on a collective experience numbering well over one hundred early stage investments.
“The current structure of the innovation ecosystem does not reflect the diversity of our country and many entrepreneurs face systemic barriers to gaining access to capital. Only with equitable access to early-stage capital can we realize our full economic potential as a nation” says Claudio Rojas, CEO of National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) “Archangel Network of Funds reflects an emerging trend of new angel collectives that are opening up new pathways to capital. This consortium of experienced superangels is well-positioned to play a pivotal role in supporting entrepreneurs across a wide variety of sectors and backgrounds.”
Pre-seed and seed investment for the Canadian start-up ecosystem is a major hurdle and often leads to promising start-ups seeking non-Canadian capital options or not being internationally competitive. Archangel will help to close the funding gap by providing early risk capital and active guidance to Canadian founders.
Additionally, through their funding model, Archangel lowers the barriers to entry for other investors that don’t necessarily realize that they can be angel investors. By doing this, Archangel opens up angel stage investing to a greater number of accredited investors than ever before and enables a diversified portfolio of next generation private companies.
The network is made up of three individual funds – Adrenaline, Axion, and StarForge – that often collaborate together on various deals depending on fund focus. “The purpose of working as a network with different funds is it allows us greater scale and reach to support the entire ecosystem. We are able to tap into our various resources and create these unique connections and opportunities for investment,” said Benton Leong, General Partner of Archangel Network of Funds.
In addition to supporting founders with capital, the team provides resources and expertise that are often hard to gain and hard for individual angels to provide at the early stages of a company’s growth trajectory. The founders of Archangel have over 60 years of collective experience in coaching founders, mentoring companies and helping them to become global tech titans.
