Triangle angel fund raises $4 million

Local investment group Triangle Angel Partners has raised slightly more than $4 million for its second fund – 45 percent more than it raised for its first fund – to invest in startups.

A total of 71 investors, mostly individuals, contributed a minimum of $50,000 each for the TAP II fund. The final closing for the fund was earlier this month; the fund initially closed on $2.5 million in September.

“Four million dollars was the goal,” said Stephen Clossick, who was hired as fund manager in September. Clossick previously was administrator of a now-defunct angel group, Tri-State Investment Group.

The new fund, TAP II, is targeting technology startups. Its initial investments in a company will typically range between $100,000 and $150,000, Clossick said.

TAP II already has invested in two local startups: FilterEasy, which delivers air filters for heating and air-condition to customers’ doorsteps at regular intervals, and Camras Vision, which is developing a medical device to treat glaucoma.

TAP II’s fundraising effort was a success even though the returns from TAP I fall into the yet-to-be-determined category because the fund “hasn’t had any exits yet,” Clossick said. Like venture capitalists, angel investors only reap a return when a portfolio company has an “exit event,” which typically involves being acquired or going public.

TAP I invested in nine companies, including fast-growing businesses such as Windsor Circle and WedPics. All but one of those companies remain in business.

John Fahlberg, the group’s president, said that many of the angel investors who put money into TAP I “reached out to their friends and business associates.”

Many of the new fund’s investors are themselves former entrepreneurs who view their investment as a way of giving back, he said.

“We want to make wise investments but we surely want to help the entrepreneurial community here,” Fahlberg said. “Most everybody that’s in the fund has that kind of motive.”

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 3:46 PM with the headline "Triangle angel fund raises $4 million."