This week Pipeline Fellowship, an angel investing bootcamp for women, announced the launch of its Miami program. The program will provide South Florida with resources to train high-net-worth women angel investors with the goal of creating more capital for local startups.
“After graduating from Pipeline Fellowship’s angel investing bootcamp, our newly winged angels have continued to invest in startups, joined later-stage angel networks, and created their own angel groups, ” explains Pipeline Fellowship founder and CEO, Natalia Oberti Noguera.
Since launching its first angel investing bootcamp in April 2011, the Pipeline Fellowship has trained over seventy women, who have committed more than $350,000 in investment, and has expanded from New York City to Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.
“There’s a lot of energy in Miami’s tech ecosystem. There are many organizations supporting local entrepreneurs. We focus on aspiring angel investors to support these entrepreneurs,” says Oberti Noguera.
What the Pipeline Fellowship plans to achieve in Miami
Grooming investors to support entrepreneurs. Initiatives like Pipeline Fellowship are vital in the continuous growth of South Florida’s budding entrepreneurial community because it focuses on grooming angel investors to support the growth of current entrepreneurs. According to the Center for Venture Growth, in 2013 angel investments contributed to job growth with the creation of 111,500 new jobs in the United States.
Decreasing the “capital gap” for startups. Create a larger pool of capital made up by local investors and more funding for startups and early stage companies locally. Entrepreneurs are everywhere, capital isn’t.
Support minority-led entrepreneurs. In 2012, women angels represented 21.8% of the angel market, a significant increase from 2011 (12.2%). Furthermore, women-owned ventures accounted for 16% of the entrepreneurs that were seeking angel capital and 25% of these women entrepreneurs received angel investment in 2012. By providing women with the resources to become angel investors, it will create a community of women leaders.
Pipeline Fellowship’s criteria are: meeting one of the accredited investor definitions in the US (i.e., $200,000 in income or $300,000 joint income with spouse for the past two years, or $1 million net worth), and having a passion for social entrepreneurship. Call for applications for the Miami-based angel investing bootcamp during the month of March 2014.