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Cross-border angel investors looking to raise $20M fund

Thursday, July 09, 2009

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Detroit

It's about time Michigan took advantage of Canada being close at hand (pun intended). In a first-of-its-kind setup, Canadian and Michiganian angel investors are forming a publicly traded company to fund promising local start-ups.

Excerpt:

Detroit-based Great Lakes Angels has joined forces with angel groups in Toronto and London, Ontario, and with the University of Windsor to form Nouveau Angel Capital Corp., which hopes to raise $20 million to invest in early-stage companies in Southeast Michigan and southwestern Ontario�

Nouveau's founders think it is the first public company in the U.S. or Canada to facilitate angel investing, and so does Jim Jaffe, president and CEO of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds.

�There are some angel groups that have formed private funds that operate like mutual funds, but I'm not aware of any public companies doing this,� he said. �The concept is exciting and unusual. My guess is that even in these difficult economic times, it may well find a group of interested investors.��

Rick Galdi, president of Great Lakes Angels, said Nouveau will target companies affiliated with TechTown, the University of Windsor and University of Western Ontario in London. The investment range will be $250,000 to $750,000 per company, well above what a company would generally expect to get in a typical angel deal.

Read the full story here.

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