Happy New Year to all of our founders, NYA Members, partners, and other investors in the industry. In this first newsletter of the year, we share our final investments of 2023, exciting news from Allstar, Socure and Automotus and interviews with NYA Member Craig Frischling and FIXE CEO and Co-Founder Ryan Handel. NYA Member Murat Köprülü discusses the new reality in startup, VC investing, and NYA appears in its first Entrepreneur article. It has been a great start to the year, and we look forward to a great 2024!
DECEMBER INVESTMENTS
In our final month of 2023, NYA Members invested slightly under ~$500k to wrap up a relatively quiet investment year totaling $5.6M.
DECEMBER INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS
LINEBIRD
This December, NYA Members invested in Linebird, which has created simpler, more efficient automation solutions for utility companies. Linebird has revolutionized electric transmission line maintenance by applying drone technology to a dangerous and labor intensive process. Linebird specializes in combining overhead powerline tools with non-conductive adaptation kits. The deal was led by Michael Brennan.
EDGEHOG
NYA Members have supported multiple founders through additional rounds of funding. Edgehog secured investment from NYA Members in their recent follow-on round. Edgehog provides advanced anti-reflection technology that eliminates stray light artifacts for image sensors, such as glare, flare, and ghost images. Their proprietary technology improves CMOS cameras' performance for industries that require precise visual data, such as automotive, security cameras, and aeronautics. The deal was led by Etienne Fretault and Edward Levine.
FOUNDER SPOTLIGHT
After working in the restaurant industry for over 20 years, Ryan Handel, CEO and Co-Founder of FIXE , founded the restaurant bookkeeping and management software company because he was tired of the challenges and expense of outsourcing bookkeeping and accounting. With Ryan’s experience in restaurants combined with Co-Founder Scott Leabman’s experience in finance, the two built FIXE to bring visibility to the bookkeeping process and save restaurant owners 100s of hours and expense. Ryan shares how startup fundraising is different from fundraising for a restaurant, how NYA members helped them refine their pitch from a 2/10 to a 10/10, and why it’s critical for founders to have experience in their industry.
COMPANY NEWS
ALLSTAR
Allstar raised $12 million in their Series A funding round to increase product development and expand the use of its technology in future partnerships. Drive Capital led the Series A round. Allstar allows everyday gamers to become Allstar gaming content creators, who can easily create and share in-game experiences to amplify game discovery and foster community engagement. Over the past year, Allstar has demonstrated incredible growth, producing over 3.2 million clips each month for over 550,000 monthly gamers. Read Full Announcement
COMPANY NEWS
SOCURE
Socure, which provides artificial intelligence for digital identity verification, sanction screening, and fraud prevention, recently announced the tremendous impact that the company has had on the U.S. economy in 2023. Socure eliminated over 204,536 synthetic identities and prevented more than $3 billion in fraud losses. Read Article
COMPANY NEWS
AUTOMOTUS
Inc. has recognized Automotus as one of the 2023 Best in Business in the Government Services category. Inc. honors companies that have made an extraordinary impact in their fields and on society. Automotus has built the first-of-its-kind automated curb management solutions to help reduce emissions, congestion, and safety hazards. Read Announcement
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Craig Frischling joined NYA ten years ago. Craig started his career in consumer marketing, consulting, and brand management. After leading Brand Management for Weight Watchers International for their Weight Loss service business, Craig moved to Lipo Chemicals, a personal care ingredients company that his father started. After he and his sisters grew the company internationally and sold it to private equity in 2010, he helped transition the business until 2012. Craig then began his angel investing career. In this interview, Craig shares why resilience is the most important characteristic of successful founders, how a great pitch differentiates a company at Screening, and how NYA can help a company secure an exit, when they may not have been able to on their own.
NYA NEWS ENTREPRENEUR MAGAZINE
With the support of the NYA Marketing team, Allison Murn published the first NYA article in Entrepreneur discussing the 7 Things That Set Angel Investors Apart From Other Early-Stage Investors. Over the course of 2024, Allison and the team will work to secure additional publication to help elevate awareness of New York Angels nationally. Read Full Article on Entrepreneur
MEMBER PERSPECTIVES THE NEW REALITY IN STARTUP AND VC INVESTING
One of NYA's most active members, Murat Köprülü discusses the new realities of startup and VC investing. Since March 2021, the massive restrictive monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve has ushered in an era of structurally higher interest rates globally. This historic transition to a higher cost of capital is now entrenched in the economic cycle for years to come. This naturally means all NPV's (net present values) of all companies are significantly lower than where they were only three years ago. Read Entire Perspective
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
BROAD ST VENTURES RALONDA JOHNSON
Ralonda Johnson, General Partner & Co-Founder of Broad St Ventures joined NYA Members in our December Investment Forum. While 4 out of 5 professional athletes go bankrupt after retirement, Ralonda shared how Broad St Ventures helps them make smarter long-term financial decisions through investing in tech. Broad St Ventures manages a diverse portfolio of early-stage, growth stage and late-stage investments in software, internet and consumer product companies. Learn More About Broad St Ventures
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
WITHUM 2023 TAX PREP
Withum, a New York Angels sponsor, will be presenting tax and accounting tips for early-stage investors on January 18. This presentation aims to delve into a spectrum of pertinent subjects and considerations essential for angel investors to successfully navigate transaction structuring and timing, record-keeping and other critical aspects of optimizing income tax treatment. Topics discussed will include relevant Sections of the IRC (e.g., 1202 1045 and 1244. NYA Members, please sign up on Gust. Read about Withum's Services
CRUNCHBASE GLOBAL STARTUP FUNDING IN 2023 CLOCKS IN AT LOWEST LEVEL IN 5 YEARS
2023 was the lowest year for venture funding since 2018. Global startup investment in 2023 reached $285 billion — marking a 38% decline year over year, down from the $462 billion invested in 2022. Cutbacks were deep across all funding stages globally. Early-stage funding in 2023 was down more than 40% year over year, late stage by 37%, and seed just over 30%. Overall funding in 2023 was down by less than 20% when compared to the pre-pandemic years of 2018 to 2020.
Investment Forum (Hybrid):
• January 22nd (9:00 AM - 1:00 PM)
February Screening (Hybrid):
• February 5th (9:00 AM - 1:00 PM)
FOUNDER DEADLINES
February Screening Application:
• Due Jan 15th
*New York Angels, Inc. ("NYA") is a not-for-profit corporation that is funded by membership dues for individuals and/or entities that NYA has designated as members as well as from certain sponsors. Its purposes include providing administrative support to its members. NYA does not invest in companies. Investments, if made, are made by individual members of NYA.
