Milwaukee investor and technology executive Andy Nunemaker is being honored for his decades-long history of technology investing.
The Wisconsin Technology Council is inducting Nunemaker into its George Mosher Memorial Investor Hall of Fame, the council recently announced. It will honor Nunemaker on Nov. 8 at its Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium conference in Madison.
Nunemaker is currently CEO of Groupware Technologies Inc., a health care software company in the care management market. He's also a longtime angel investor, focusing primarily on technology companies in the Wisconsin region. Previously, he was CEO of GE HealthCare for Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.
The tech executive got his investing start more than 20 years ago with Golden Angels Investors, a Milwaukee-area angel investing group. He's still an active part of that group and also does some deals outside of it, he said.
Nunemaker has made around 12 investments with Golden Angels, he said. Of those, he's been personally involved with three: EMSystems LLC, Dynamis Software Corp. and Groupware Technologies. He's also an investor in Brookfield-based EmOpti Inc. and is on its board.
He has also made direct investments in companies, including the Milwaukee-based pharmaceutical software company ConsortiEx Inc. and Glendale-based craft beer and soda maker Sprecher Brewing Co. He's on the board of directors for ConsortiEX and is Sprecher's board chair.
Nunemaker's latest venture, Groupware Technologies, was an existing software company Nunemaker purchased and brought to Golden Angels as an investment opportunity. His strategy is to transform it into a software-as-a-service model by releasing a cloud-based product. It should be released within the next six months, Nunemaker said.
Nunemaker has seen some returns on his investments. EMSystems, of which Nunemaker was CEO, was acquired by Florida-based Intermedix Corp. in 2010. Dynamis Software, which he also led, was sold to Illinois-based Applied Systems Inc. in 2018.
"Both of those exited at very successful returns for all of the investors," Nunemaker said.
But to Nunemaker, investing is about more than seeking returns, he said.
"Obviously I do it because I want to make a financial return," he said. "But I also think being an active investor and being on boards and mentoring companies is important. It's not just your money, but it's sharing your experiences."
Nunemaker credits some of his early startup success to his mentor Tim Keane, who leads Golden Angels Investors. The Tech Council inducted Keane into its Investor Hall of Fame in 2020.
