December 24, 2012
By Kelli Dugan | kdugan@al.com
MOBILE, Alabama – If all you want for Christmas is seed money for your startup, Santa got your letter.
The Gulf Coast Angel Network, in partnership with the statewide Angel Investor Management Group, is actively seeking funding applications from promising early-stage companies hindered only by their access to capital.
The affiliation affords companies access to capital infusions ranging from $250,000 to $2 million, and while preference is given to Alabama-based operations, the investment structure does not favor any one city over another.
What exactly does this mean for aspiring coastal entrepreneurs?
“If there are companies in the Mobile area or people contemplating starting a company in the Mobile area and they need money to get started, there is now a source of equity funding that didn’t exist before,” said Atmore native Jim Corman, founder and chief operating officer of the Auburn-based AIM Group.
“Also, if you are an entrepreneur or investor who would like to invest with a disciplined approach in a diversified manner that limits exposure, we can provide that vehicle,” Corman said.
Strength in numbers
Founded in 2010 by lawyer turned entrepreneur Michael Chambers, the Mobile-based Gulf Coast Angel Network “considers all types of high growth and high revenue businesses” capable of delivering a three- to ten-time return-on-investment within three to seven years.
The organization gained traction – and the leverage of a statewide network whose influence extends across the Southeast – in September by contracting with the AIM Group, and the mutually beneficial impact became apparent almost immediately.
Indeed, when the statewide fund debuted two years ago, the in-house lending capacity hovered around $250,000 per deal by pooling investors from the Auburn and Huntsville markets. When the Birmingham market joined the fray in April as the Central Alabama Angel Network that figure increased to about $350,000, and when the Gulf Coast Angel Network signed on in September that figure jumped to $460,000, nearly doubling the larger organization’s original lending power.
“Over the past 12 months, we’ve now brought four networks under the AIM Group umbrella, raising money for nine companies, seven of which were seeking first-round funding and one each from Auburn and Huntsville that needed second-round funding,” Corman said. “Our goal is to take that number to 10 deals per year.”
Invaluable intangibles
Considering the national average for angel investor networks is the financing of one or two deals per year, the AIM Group’s nine awards totaling $2.7 million in 2012 rank it second in lending capability behind only the Atlanta Technology Angels.
“We want to let local entrepreneurs know there is a source of revenue for early-state companies, but we also want to let potential investors know we offer a mechanism for screening and evaluating early stage businesses, so the next time a QMS gets started in Mobile, they don’t have to go to Atlanta or Boston to get their funding,” said Bo Megginson, executive director of the Gulf Coast Angel Network.
QMS, founded as Quality Micro Systems by Jim Busby on a $10,000 loan, ultimately went public and employed some 1,500 worldwide before selling a controlling interest to Minolta which took the leading-edge printer operation private.
Megginson said the AIM Group structure exists to ensure when companies the caliber of QMS hit the big time, local investors reap the benefits alongside the successful entrepreneurs.
In addition, Megginson said investors also receive intangibles such as the intellectual resources, experience, knowledge and wisdom “you just can’t put a dollar figure on if you were going to go out and hire consultants.”
“I don’t know if you can overestimate the power of that, but we still have to preach it to our members. It can be incredibly arduous to open some of the doors startups need opened, but we can do that,” he said.
To contact the AIM Group, click here and to read more on the group's formation, click here.
For more information, visit http://commerce.alabama.gov
For more state-wide press releases, click here
|