The coronavirus pandemic didn’t prevent Cincinnati angel capital investor group Queen City Angels from continuing to grow.
The group that invests in startups mostly in Greater Cincinnati saw its membership jump by about 20% last year. Queen City Angels now has 130 members.
“That was a surprise,” Tony Shipley, the group’s chairman who founded it in 2000, told me. “I think our education programs helped people understand how this asset class works. And we have a membership class that allows them to put in a smaller amount of money.”
Its membership has soared from 49 in 2014.
The reasons Shipley gave address key reasons why some investors don’t get involved in Queen City Angels: they don’t understand how angel investing works and they shy away from the financial commitment.
Angel investors put money into startups at their very early stages.
Queen City Angels requires members to commit to investing $250,000 over three years. But its relatively new Ascent membership category allows members to invest just $25,000, with fewer benefits. But they get a taste of angel capital investing.
Even with the lower level available, about two-thirds of the new members are in the regular membership class, Shipley said.
Queen City Angels had a stellar year by other measures, too.
It made 15 investments during the fiscal year that ended in September, Shipley said, even though more than half of that year was amid the pandemic.
And its portfolio companies survived, with many thriving through the pandemic.
“We rolled our sleeves up to see how we could help them,” Shipley said.
More than 20 of its 38 portfolio companies received Paycheck Protection Program loans to keep their employees. Those PPP loans totaled about $6 million, Shipley said.
“Most of our portfolio companies are pedal to the metal,” Shipley said. “None have been lost due to Covid. We’re happy to see our entrepreneurs respond with gusto. They made the best of a crappy hand we were all dealt.”
Shipley was worried whether any acquisition activity would take place that would result in bigger companies buying some of those in which Queen City Angels had invested. But M&A activity continued.
As a result, five of its companies were acquired, enabling Queen City Angels investors to exit their investments in those companies.
Companies in which Queen City Angels have investments include several health care companies, such as: Include Health; Ischemia Care; Sense Neuro Diagnostics; and Standard Bariatrics. But it also has numerous other investments, such as:
- Crakn, which helps funeral home operators manage their business
- Dart Displays, which provides digital displays to retailers
- Supply Dynamics, which helps companies manage their supply chains and determine where Covid has affected it
- Columbus-based Healthy Roster, which developed technology that the PGA Tour used to let pro golfers know if other golfers, caddies or staff members have contracted Covid.
Over 20 years, Queen City Angels has invested $75 million in 95 companies.
