May always seems to be a busy month, with schools ending, graduation ceremonies, conferences, and summer planning. Here’s a quick look at the events and accomplishments keeping VentureSouth members busy during the month.
Meetings:
We shook up our monthly meeting cadence in an experiment we called the “Spring Seasonal Summits.” The goal was to consolidate our monthly member meetings into fewer, but bigger, meetings in North and South Carolina – and see how larger crowds and a full day of angel investing impacted the “vibe.”
Over 75 angel investors met in both Charleston (for pitches, presentations, and to watch the Riverdogs crush it) and Greensboro (for similar ideas, though the weather forced a relocation from baseball to brewery - which didn’t get too many complaints).
Particular highlights were the site visits to portfolio companies Case Status, Bublish, and Soelect. Angel investing can sometimes seem theoretical and virtual; the best parts are meeting in person and seeing the tangible results of the investing and the companies’ work, so we are thankful these companies let us drop by.
Thanks especially to everyone who hit the road to join the meetings. Though not quite in the league of our annual Summit (like this one), getting together in larger groups is always a fun experience for angels; we hope you enjoyed them as much as we did, and look forward to a “fall” reprise.
Investments:
After a big April, May was quieter on the investing ledger. Nonetheless, we funded over $200k into one new company, and exercised our pro rata positions in two existing portfolio companies raising additional capital. Total investment rounds now stands at 312.
Deals & Diligence: Behind the scenes, four companies competed in the screening meeting at the beginning of the month, and two continued through our diligence process (under the eagle eye of Jewel).
Don’t forget you can explore a subset of these opportunities yourself, for free via www.vicinityventures.vc or www.vicinitycapital.com to see the public deals. You’ll need to be a VentureSouth for all of them ,of course..
Portfolio: Notable news from the portfolio in May included:
- BreachRx announced a new $15M Series funding round led by Ballistic Ventures
- Iconic released its next notable artist set - Whip Out the Paints and Get To It by Rebecca Rose.
- Reveal Mobile announced a partnership with SOMO, and OneDigitalTrust announced a partnership with RCB Bank, and Sharpen announced a partnership with Chime Health.
And if you prefer audio: Paul welcomed portfolio companies Protect3d and MPath onto the Venture in the South podcast, which is also available now in video form here. (Subscribe on Spotify or leave a review on Apple podcasts!)
Out & About:
And, as usual, we kept our cars busy as we covered the southeast. You might have seen:
- Paul around Greenville at Ten at the Top, or office hours at NEXT, or at the Furman Advantage Greenville – or on the road meeting entrepreneurs and investors in the Triangle
- Matt at Seed the South in Charlotte.
- And more.