As Rockies Venture Club continues to grow its statewide angel investor network, the organization announced that it has backed three promising local startups.
The group invested an undisclosed amount in Denver's Buderflys and Vaporox, and Fort Collins-based TiLT.
Rockies Venture Club Executive Director Peter Adams said that each of these companies have bright futures in their respective industries.
"They are all true innovators in their fields, they have the ability to return ten times our investment or more over five years, and two out of three of them are women-led companies with at least one woman on the C-level management of the company," Adams said.
Buderflys is developing earbuds made of a patent-pending malleable material that allows for earbud fit and comfort. The company says the buds allow for not only better audio quality, but longer periods of listening with comfort.
With the focus on fit and comfort, Buderflys' initial target customers will be those who are listening mainly to spoken content like podcasts and audiobooks.
Vaporox, a medical device company healing chronic skin wounds, has developed a patented and FDA-cleared technology called Vaporous Hyperoxia Therapy, which accelerates the healing of nine types of wounds, like diabetic foot ulcers.
In August, the company moved into RiNo healthcare hub Catalyst HTI and was named a Colorado Inno Startup to Watch in 2020 in December.
RVC's final investment was in Fort Collins' TiLT, a startup changing the way companies approach parental leave. TiLT’s tech-enabled solution provides guided-leave plans that help companies and employees prepare for an upcoming leave, organizing all of the required forms, releases and tasks in one platform.
After rolling out the initial product focused on maternity and paternity leave, TiLT intends to increase their product functionality to support employees going on leave for disability, sabbatical and more. TiLT also landed a spot on our 2020 Startups to Watch list.
RVC's funding rounds range from $200,000 to $2 million and the organization has made about 120 investment rounds in about 50 companies since 2014.
The organization said in a release that over 50% of its portfolio companies have successfully raised a second seed round or Series A. Furthermore, out of the 120 investments made over the past five years, only three companies in the RVC portfolio have failed.
In 2019, RVC backed local startups Sheets & Giggles, PharmaJet, CirrusMD and Recoup Fitness, among others.
This announcement comes after RVC announced that it would work with the Denver South Economic Development Partnership to launch a chapter of the statewide angel investor network in the Denver South region.
