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Investment

Chemical Angel Network launches first investment fund

Investment group is looking for very early-stage chemistry start-ups

by Craig Bettenhausen
May 11, 2022 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 100, Issue 17

 

The Chemical Angel Network has raised its first formal investment fund and is now on the hunt for chemistry and material start-ups to invest in. The group plans to invest up to $150,000 apiece in 8–10 firms and expects this to be the first in a series of such funds.

$150,000

The size of investments the Chemical Angel Network plans to make in early-stage chemistry start-ups from its first investment fund.

Angel investors come in at the earliest stages of a start-up’s existence, when it might be just one or two people with a prototype or bench-scale process. Chemical Angel Network has been around since 2011, when co-founders Mark Vreeke, Sid White, and Judith Giordan met through American Chemical Society events on intellectual property and identified a need to connect angel investors with aspiring chemistry entrepreneurs, Vreeke says. Giordan is now president-elect of ACS, which publishes C&EN.

Up to now, the network has coordinated investments between about 40 start-ups and individual angel investors. The group has seen successes, including the reflective display tech firm Azumo, which went on to raise $30 million in funding earlier this month. Another is Connora Technologies, which sold its recyclable polyamine epoxy technology to Aditya Birla Chemicals in 2019. The group also hosts a series of well-attended pitch-slam and networking events featuring young science companies.

Start-ups can apply at chemicalangels.com/entrepreneurs and will be considered both for the fund and by individual Chemical Angels. Vreeke says new investors are also welcome.

CORRECTION:

This story was updated on May 16, 2022, to correct the name of the investment group in the headline and box. It is Chemical Angel Network, not Chemical Angels Network.

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