Halcyon Angels — a new earlier-stage investment arm of the prominent Georgetown nonprofit incubator for social entrepreneurship — has made its first round of investments.
The angel network has put a total of $630,000 in two companies: Richmond-based education data analytics company MajorClarity and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based renewable energy startup Solstice.
Both ventures fit the mold of what the collection of angel investors is looking for — companies that provide both a financial and social return, said Halcyon Angels Director Dahna Goldstein in an interview Friday. The group brings together angel investors who hear startup pitches and determine whether they'll make investments or not, "Shark Tank"-style.
The aim is to make at least $1 million worth of investments annually or top $3.5 million across three years. But that the group mobilized as much capital as it did for its first two investments alone “really says a lot about excitement about impact investing,” Goldstein said. “It’s been happening for a while and interest has been growing, but we’re at this intersection of a public health crisis, an economic and employment crisis, and increasingly loud calls for racial justice. And I think it’s causing people to shift some of the lenses with which they’re viewing the world — and that, from what we’re seeing, is changing how people are viewing investing, much for the better in our view."
As for the two companies that received investments, here are more details:
- MajorClarity secured $400,000 for its education management platform, which simplifies administrative tasks for schools, gives teachers curriculum guidance and lesson plan ideas, and exposes students to prospective careers with online simulations. Founder and CEO Joe Belsterling started the business in 2014 after pursuing multiple careers, contending with debt and, then, working with New York nonprofit education lab 4.0 Schools to help young adults learn about career options. The business now works with thousands of schools across the U.S., totaling 24 employees and more than $500,000 in funding before this investment, according to data analytics firm PitchBook.
- Solstice received $230,000, enabling the business to bring its community solar industry model to more neighborhoods. The 6-year-old company, which makes solar energy more widely accessible for homeowners unable to install rooftop solar — and, in doing so, helps families lower their monthly utility bills — is also a Halcyon incubator alum. It’s run by CEO Steph Speirs, who founded Solstice in 2014 after working for solar product company d.light India, leading New York venture capital firm Acumen’s renewable energy investment strategy in Pakistan and managing field operations for Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign. Solstice reports it serves 6,400 households, saving them $138,000 annually. The 59-person company has raised $7.41 million to date, per PitchBook, including a $3.13 million seed round it closed this month.
The angel group has three more pitch meetings on the calendar this year. It’s actively reviewing applications now for its upcoming meeting in September, with another scheduled for November, Goldstein said.
The network is planning to grow, now with 20 investors — some with experience, some new to the table — and recruiting for more. It’s also looking to ensure on the founder and funder sides “that the groups of people we’re bringing together are reflective of where innovation is happening,” Goldstein said, “and that means being more inclusive of diversity, of experience. It means providing a broader range of representation than I think has historically happened with early-stage investing.”
Goldstein herself came on board the angel group in November after an entrepreneurial journey of her own. In 2004, she founded PhilanTech Inc., a D.C. online grants management system that helped nonprofits raise more funding — “the type of company Halcyon Angels is investing in,” she said. She sold it a decade later to a Reston grant management software company, Altum, in late 2014.
Halcyon’s impact investor group, conceived a year ago to facilitate investments in social impact enterprises, comes from a U.S. Department of Commerce grant, which gave Halcyon $300,000 over three years from the department’s Regional Innovations Strategies Program, to support hires and operations.
It moves forward alongside other local efforts to improve access to capital and support early-stage startups, particularly for underserved communities. D.C.’s Citrine Angels recently made its own investments. And other groups — such as Vinetta Project, Black Girl Ventures, Walker’s Legacy, Score 3 and others — are looking to back and support early-stage entrepreneurs and, foster equity in the local investment landscape for women and founders of color.
Halcyon, based in Georgetown and led by co-founder and CEO Kate Goodall, has spent the last year introducing new initiatives to support more social impact ventures. That list includes a new program for startups in the city’s opportunity zones and raising a $6 million fund to invest in its own startups for the first time, since its incubator started in 2014. Since then, Halcyon reports, its 99 alumni have raised more than $125 million and created 2,000 jobs.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly spelled the name of the Solstice CEO. It is Steph Speirs.
