Today we launched an Investor Search Engine that includes all of the VC Funds and Angel Groups in the US.  The tool includes a wide array of filters and sorts to help entrepreneurs narrow their funding search to the perfect group. We believe this a important step forward in bringing transparency and efficiency to the early-stage industry, and we’d love to hear your feedback.

Below is our press release which explains our new features and the thinking behind them.  You can also read about our release on these blogs: New York Times: Bits, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, The Social Times, and Innonate, paidContent.org

Finding Startup Investors Just Got Easier

Angelsoft.net Launches the Definitive VC & Angel Investor Search Engine

New York, NY (March 09, 2009) – Few would argue that it’s getting easier for startup companies to find investors. That however, is the bold claim made by financial technology provider Angelsoft.net, who today announced the release of their Investor Search Engine.  The surprising news is that, given their unprecedented access to real data about real investors, they might just be right.

The Search Engine contains detailed profiles on over 1,000 venture capital firms and angel investment groups, with a dizzying array of sorts and filters reminiscent of Web 2.0 travel search engine Kayak.com.  Entrepreneurs can filter investment firms based on how much they invest and what terms they typically offer, as well as on company-based criteria such as industry, location and stage.  The real revolution, however, is the ability for entrepreneurs to sort the 450 investment organizations who use Angelsoft’s Investor Tools by actual metrics mined from the software, like each group’s average response time, number of applications received each month, and even real investment amounts.

“Entrepreneurs have never had access to this kind of tool before, but more importantly, they’ve never had access to this kind of data,” explained Angelsoft’s CEO, David S. Rose.  ”Investors have traditionally been very guarded about how they manage their pipeline.”

When asked how they convinced their clients to open up, COO, Ryan Janssen cautioned, “Not all of them have, but our VCs and angel groups consistently rank ‘inappropriate applications’ as the biggest burden on their resources, and most of them know that will never change unless entrepreneurs have easier access to better information.”

It’s a poorly guarded secret that investors prefer to back experienced entrepreneurs, or at least those who have been referred by people they know. As such, it is increasingly difficult for new entrepreneurial talent to get discovered and funded. Most venture capital firms and an increasing number of professional angel groups no longer look at unsolicited business proposals.

“We’ve been battling this problem for the last 5 years,” says Janssen. “Because our platform powers the large majority of organized angel groups, as well as an increasing number of leading venture capital firms, the system can automatically ‘black-list’ entrepreneurs who apply indiscriminately, while promoting those companies that are the right match for a particular firm.”

Angelsoft also provides a suite of tools to help entrepreneurs manage their funding search, including an industry-standard online application, news feeds to monitor their progress as they move through a firm’s review process, and integration with the LinkedIn business networking site to quickly reveal their existing connections to each investment group.  ”There simply is not a lot of trust between investors and entrepreneurs right now,” explained Rose. “We believe that communication and transparency is the key to rebuilding that trust, and the Angelsoft platform is taking major strides in this area.”

###

Jason D. Schwartz :: Mar.09.2009
Entrepreneur, Investors, Press Release