News & Insights

11 down, 1 to go!  It might be a shorter month, but no less activity kept us busy in November. Here’s what an angel investment group gets up to when left unsupervised.Meetings:November’s calendar was anchored by our last “Seasonal Summit” of 2025, in Charlotte, NC. We welcomed over 50 VentureSouth members and guests, mostly from Charlotte but with intrepid attendees from Greenville and the Triangle, for an afternoon of angel investing.We also met virtually, and in-person in Greensboro, Durham, and Chattanooga to make sure our members got to see entrepreneurs in real life.Thanks to six companies who pitched across those sessions, and to the four portfolio companies who updated us on their progress while we were in Charlotte.Investments:November was on a regular pace (given the lost week), with VentureSouth’s angel investors and funds investing $692,500 this month.We had some concentration risk this month: most of those funds went into the one new company that joined the VentureSouth portfolio. As is often true, we can’t publicly identify the company because the round is still active, but we are excited to add a new logo to the website! A small amount also trickled into one other existing portfolio company raising follow-on funding.VentureSouth members joined a wider set of “local investors” to fund some crowdfunding investments through Vicinity Ventures. Over the last month Vicinity Ventures has facilitated over $1.3M in community investment in public deals. You can check out these deals, and more at https://vicinityventures.co/ (but need to be a VentureSouth for the private deals, of course.)Liquidity!November was one of the very enjoyable months during which exiting companies sent more capital back to investors than investors sent to new investments.A company - who must remain nameless because the transaction documents swear us to confidentiality - was acquired in mid November. We sent distributions totaling over $1.4M to VentureSouth members and VentureSouth Angel Fund V investors. The “early exit” was a nice solid quick win, of ~2x in 15 months, at a 31% IRR. Not a Techcrunch article, no press releases, and no misleading TVPI markups along the way; just a solid (and, hopefully, consistent and repeatable) “southeastern angel” deal. And a success for the entrepreneurs, who continue to work on the technology with the strategic acquirer.That’s the eighth realization from the VentureSouth portfolio this year – the M&A markets appear to be opening up.Of course angel investing has bad news as well as good. Another portfolio company filed bankruptcy paperwork after some ill-judged follow-on round debt funding, working capital challenges, and growth issues compounded earlier personnel turnover and led to a hard-stop negative exit. We don’t see many of those, but this one hurt. Diligence:Behind the scenes, we skipped our screening meeting because we have plenty of companies in the diligence pipeline. But we made progress on those, with one company finishing diligence and getting investment, and two others reaching positive verdicts right at the end of the month.Portfolio: We processed incoming 3Q updates from ten companies. Notable public news from the portfolio in November included:Gradient Health presented at Medtronics, and at Johnson & Johnson; its Atlas platform is now live on Google Cloud Marketplace; and Atlas 2 just launched.MPath’s JAMA article (published in October) demonstrated that its direct-to-patient digital health intervention increased rates of lung cancer screeningPhinite was voted best Ag-tech startup of the year by Ag Startup Engine.Seal the Seasons is available at Hannafords.(And not a portfolio company, but Venture in the South interviewee Scale Social AI announced its $1.3M Seed round, with participation from several southeastern angel group efforts. Congratulations on getting this done!)Need a Black Friday deal from a VentureSouth portfolio company? Check out Healthycell’s Amazon bargains and a 24% discount at xxiv skincareOut & About:We coincided our Charlotte meeting with the Venture 135 conference - one of the best VC conferences in the southeast. Matt covered the “ask me anything” investor reverse pitches, and Paul covered the pitching crowd and was a general nuisance to organizers (sorry Avra). Great work Dan and the team.Next up: year end closings, company budgets, portfolio updates – and holiday parties. Merry Christmas from the VentureSouth team!

October is in the books! It’s always a busy month, and so here is a quick recap of what we got up to before our trick-or-treaters got their candy.Meetings:In a regular month of in-person meetings, we saw live startup pitches and in-person discussion in Charlotte, Greenville, Asheville, Charleston, Greensboro, Durham, and Chattanooga – plus our monthly online meeting if none of those in-person meetings were convenient!Thanks to everyone who joined us to pitch or update (six different companies - some existing portfolio companies, one soon-to-be portfolio company, and three potentially portfolio companies) and to hear and grill the pitchers.Investments:October was a fairly typical month for investing activity: VentureSouth’s angel investors and funds invested $902,248.57 this month. (You don’t get to be the #1 most active angel group in the State of Startups if you don’t invest a bunch.)This investment went to one new portfolio company (which we can’t publicly identify because the round is still open) and four follow-on rounds in existing portfolio companies.One of those was an unusual “milestone” round, where we had committed last year to invest further funds if the startup hit certain milestones. They did, so we did.VentureSouth members, alongside a wider set of investors interested in local alternative asset investments, also funded public investments through Vicinity Ventures, including closed rounds in 13 Stripes, Waters Edge Winery, and Carbon Country. You can check out these deals, and more at https://vicinityventures.co/ (You’ll need to be a VentureSouth for the private deals, of course.)Diligence:Behind the scenes, four companies pitched at our screening meeting at the beginning of the month, and two started our rigorous diligence gauntlet.Portfolio: Notable news from the portfolio in October included:Plantd officially announced its $22M Series B round.Zinnia won the HearstLab pitch competition twentyfour skincare launched product lines using both Zylo Therapeutics’ Z-pods and Yuva Bio’s Y100 ingredients in a great example of cross-portfolio pollinationGoPivot launched a Wellness Program at The Sharon in South Park in Charlotte.Out & About:Paul welcomed VentureSouth member Dan Haight to the Venture in the South podcast (video channel here; or subscribe on Spotify etc.), David reviewed AI trends with portfolio company CEO Josh Miller, and we covered regulatory challenges and positive developments.And, as usual, we participated in entrepreneur and investor events across the southeast. You might have seen: Jewel representing VentureSouth at the Venture Atlanta conference.Matt sharing his wisdom as a veteran entrepreneur with the Angel Capital Association.Paul helping Greensboro’s entrepreneurs with tips on how to raise capital; moderating a panel on valuating pre-revenue startups; and attending office hours at NEXT.Charlie spending time in Harrisonburg, VA - as well as selling beer at the Newberry Oktoberfest.Several team members helping with this season’s Clemens Angel Analyst program at Furman’s Hill Institute, covering diligence, team sheets, and cap tables.And more.Team:On a sad note, Alex left us this month, to further his career in a new role in Fayetteville helping companies with their financials. Alex made VentureSouth better and did a great job tracking and helping our portfolio companies. We’ll miss his dedication, analytical rigor, and team spirit, and really do wish him the best of luck in his new role.And on the Halloween updates, we had Wednesday, Katniss Everdeen, and many other miscreants on the streets on 10/31. All are accounted for.

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 VenturesIconic 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 TriangleMatt at Seed the South in Charlotte.And more.

April has been quite a month in the stock market. It’s less easy to see into opaque private markets, but it’s also been quite a month in the angel investing markets in the Southeast. Here’s the Vicinity Ventures April 2025 recap to give you a peek into what we’ve been working on.Investments: Big venture capital funds are making major bets on AI startups. Reflecting that national trend, VentureSouth members also made two big AI bets in April, investing over $1.2M in two rounds for AI-related companies. We don’t “break the news” of our companies’ investment rounds, but you’ll likely read more about these rounds as they are announced. We’re excited to invest in companies doing real things with AI here in our backyard.AI, though, represented less than half of our investments this month. VentureSouth members and funds invested over $2.4M in six companies (two new and four follow-on rounds) in total – not a bad pace of deployment for an angel group! In addition, Boyd Cycling successfully closed its community funding round, raising $589,550 from individuals across its “Vicinity” to fund continued expansion.Returns: As many tourist VCs and one-shot angels have painfully learned since 2021, deploying capital is only the first step; getting it back again is much harder!That is why we are particularly pleased that the last few weeks also saw VentureSouth members receiving proceeds from three companies – a bridge loan paying out interest, a prior-exited company releasing extra funds from a transaction escrow, and, most excitingly, over $3M returned as a long-standing portfolio company was acquired. Again, you’ll be reading more when the deal is announced, but (for now anonymous) congratulations to the team on a successful culmination of a LOT of hard work.Deals & Diligence: As usual, regardless of capital deployed or exits secured, work continues on new investment ideas, with four companies competing in the screening meeting at the beginning of the month, and two finishing the diligence gauntlet.Since the VentureSouth + Vicinity partnership was announced in February, you can begin exploring a subset of these investments yourself. Sign up for free at www.vicinityventures.vc or www.vicinitycapital.com to see the public deals, and upgrade to VentureSouth membership to see the menu exclusively available to VentureSouth members.Portfolio: Notable news from the portfolio in April included:A major partnership announced between Gradient Health and the Rajpurkar Lab in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical SchoolBabylon Microfarms made it onto NBC when it covered the MSC World America’s maiden voyage (complete with two Microfarms)Baebies received FDA “breakthrough device” designation for the first point-of-care heparin monitoring assay.And more, including Darby adding a new CEO, Healthycell now being available on iHerb, and Atticus starting its new clinical trial for androgenic alopecia.If you prefer audio: David welcomed portfolio companies Gradient Health, Yuva, and Bublish onto the Venture in the South podcast. (Subscribe on Spotify or leave a review on Apple podcasts!)Meetings & Membership:We held angel investor meetings in Asheville, Greenville (twice!), Atlanta, Chattanooga, and online, and welcomed new members to our flock across the Southeast.We thanked our sponsors Insperity, Burr & Forman, and Rhodes Companies for their contributions to the VentureSouth angel investor community.Out & About:And we hit the road, of course! You might have seen Eric and Allen scrambling to meet Fran Tarkenton in Atlanta, Paul Newsom co-organizing the No Boundaries pitching competition in Aiken, or Charlie flying the flag in Ponte Vedra Beach with our Jacksonville angels.But not before getting out all the VentureSouth K-1s. K-1 Kudzu ran longer than we like, but all K-1s were out by April 15th. Now just waiting for my stragglers from non-VentureSouth investments, then I can file…Lastly, it’s hard to believe it, but April 2025 also saw the 10th anniversary of the first meeting of Lowcountry Angels, back in the misty distant past of April 2015. Time flies like a Mallard when you’re having fun.

Vicinity Capital & VentureSouth unite to expand local investors' access to startups, real estate & angel investment opportunities.

VentureSouth and Vicinity are pleased to announce a powerful new joint venture to create the premier platform for local alternative investing – Vicinity Ventures.
 

A recap of VentureSouth's angel investing activities across the southeast in October 2024

VentureSouth is excited to announce investments totaling $5.5 million.

Durham, N.C. – VentureSouth, one of the country’s largest early stage investment firms, is pleased to announce that Jonathan Heigel, a longstanding member of the group, will now serve as the director for VentureSouth Triangle in Durham. After graduating from Duke University with a B.A. in economics and political science and an M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business, Jonathan worked for the US Navy and several consulting companies across the US, before forming his own business consulting and advisory firms. “VentureSouth is thrilled to continue working with Jonathan, now in his role of director of our angel investment group in the Triangle,” said Paul Clark, managing director of VentureSouth. “Jonathan has been a valuable VentureSouth member for several years, as an investor, due diligence team member, and advocate. His service on the board of directors for portfolio companies, most recently for Seal the Seasons in Durham, lets him apply his consulting and entrepreneurial expertise, to early stage companies in the region. We are thrilled to have him leading our efforts in the Triangle.” “I’m very excited to be taking on an active role representing VentureSouth in the Triangle,” said Jonathan. “Having recently relocated to Raleigh, it’s incredibly exciting to see how the region has exploded in so many ways since my college days. The vitality and volume of entrepreneurs, venture investors, and the startup ecosystem matches anything I’ve seen elsewhere in the country, and I’m excited to become a part of it.” With over 500 members, VentureSouth has invested in over 100 companies throughout the Southeast, including over 25 in the Triangle. The organization is excited about continuing to attract new investors into early stage investing, and funding companies in one of the most dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystems in the Southeast.

Venture Carolina, a nonprofit dedicated to bridging the funding gap between investors and entrepreneurs has once again partnered with the South Carolina Department of Commerce’s Office of Innovation, VentureSouth, and the South Carolina Jobs-Economic Development Authority (JEDA) to launch the 2023 Palmetto Venture Fellowship, a program designed to create more local accredited investors and expand risk-capital accessibility for early-stage startups in South Carolina. Following its highly successful inaugural launch in 2022, the Palmetto Venture Fellowship, recently kicked off in Greenville with its 2023 class. The 30 fellows will meet three times throughout the year for two days of comprehensive education on the intricacies associated with early stage capital formation.The curriculum consists of topics such as valuations, term sheets, capitalization tables, due diligence, board governance, and exit strategies. “The caliber of the 2023 class proves that South Carolina can assemble a group of business leaders that would rival any state in the country,” said Venture Carolina Executive Director Charlie Banks. “It is even more exciting that these individuals represent a tangible building block for the sustainability of South Carolina’s innovation economy. I was truly blown away at the combined talent and energy during our first gathering.” Thomas Rhodes, President of The Rhodes Companies stated, “South Carolina has great potential to be a destination for entrepreneurs and growth capital. This cohort brings together a diverse group of people, all of whom are committed to our state and region. I am fortunate to be included.” John Brice, Managing Partner of Poseidon Capital Ventures stated, “The program has already exceeded my expectations, even as an experienced venture investor. The community aspect coupled with the expert education provided by the facilitators is a unique opportunity and great add to any prospective venture investors and community builders across South Carolina.” Rozalynn Goodwin, VP of the SC Hospital Association and successful entrepreneur stated, “It’s an honor to participate in this cohort of the Palmetto Venture Fellowship. I am excited about all we are learning and the relationships we are building to move South Carolina’s economy forward through innovation.” The 2023 class of the Palmetto Venture Fellows was selected by a committee of business leaders and investors throughout South Carolina, in addition to nominations from the 2022 class of Palmetto Venture Fellows. The full class listing can be found on Venture Carolina's website.