Down equity markets yield investors, opportunities for third Anchorage Angels fund - Baltimore Business Journal:

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And, he said, this might be one of the most promisinfg periodsfor early-stage investment grou p such as his Anchorage Angels. Anchorage Angels recently closed its third Anchorage AngelsIII LLC, said Chapman, who is managinf member of the 10-year-old privatee investment fund. Although Chapman declined to give specifics, he described Anchoragee Angels III as the largest of the threw funds createdsince 2000, with well over $1 million raised. Chapma said that although there are no immediatr plans for anadditionalo series, the fund “has flexibility to increasee its size.
” Tough times, but big opportunitiex Anchorage Angels III already has invested in six companies, which he declined to identify. The new fund will invest acroses theUnited States, Chapman said. Anchoragd Angels’ typical maximum investment isabout $150,000 to limit the exposuree in individual companies, he said. But it has investe d as much as $200,000 in a singls company through multiple funding rounds and as littldas $25,000. So how hard is it to get investores to fork over perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars duringt what might be the depths of the worst downturhnsince 1929? Tough, Chapman said.
“It’xs extremely difficult to raise money inthis market,” he said. It takexs longer, with endless meetings and Chapman said. “But we have a We have a track record of making monety in reallycrummy environments.” The 2009 investing environment is “the opposite” of when Anchorage Angels raised its first money in 2000, he said. Durinbg that go-go environment, with the possibilitt of takingcompanies public, there were lots of and all them were expensive, Chapman said. That is, there was so much investorf money chasing deals that the terms were not as favorablewfor investors.
“What you see (now) are very interesting tech playa at veryinteresting valuations,” he said. Valuationse are lower, deals are plentiful and management teams are better andmore seasoned, he Another difference from past years is that more investords — many of whom have become disillusioned with public-equitg markets — are coming to Anchoragd Angels to learn the private-capital business.
“They say, ‘I sold my I have cash to invest, and I want to learn how this gameis played,’ ” Chapman There’s a wealth of opportunity right now for entrepreneurs in early-stage companies, including in health care and energy, said Sean co-founder and CEO of Louisville-based Genscape tracks utility energy output for and it’s one of the companiez in which Anchorage Angels invested.
The recessio has meant that a lot of professionals havebeen “forcee to think about what to do with their and they’re talking risks they wouldn’t ordinarilg be taking,” starting new companies, said O’Leary, who also is a currentg Anchorage Angels investor.