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Even Professional Fund Managers Struggle to Track Their Portfolios, Private-on-Private Acquisitions are Crossing $1B, and Bees get Amino Acid Love
🔥 Angel Deals of the Week | June 12, 2025
Andrew Kazlow
June 12, 2025 • Reading Time: 8 minutes
Happy Thursday.
Here are your angel deals of the week, some bookmarks I think you’ll enjoy, and the best nugget from my conversation with Seraf Investor CEO, Alycia Doxon.
🔥 Angel Deals of the Week
🤝 Recent funding rounds from angel networks. I have not personally vetted these deals and am sharing for informational purposes only. Have one to announce? Reply to this email.
🤖 Deal summaries generated using dealmemo.ai.
🧾 Check out every deal we’ve tracked here.
Terra Vera | Amino acid agricultural products
Participating Group: NM Angels
Terra Vera develops amino acid-based products for growers and beekeepers to address hive health preservation and crop yield optimization challenges. The company targets the agricultural sector facing growing food demand while arable land continues to decline. Terra Vera recently secured investment from NM Angels, which announced the funding as part of their commitment to supporting early-stage companies in New Mexico.
Carlos Perea | Undisclosed Round Details | New Mexico | May 2025 | Source
Brite | Student feedback app reducing attrition
Participating Group: Country Roads Angel Network (CRAN)
Brite is developing an app that helps colleges and universities reduce student attrition by understanding student needs through real-time feedback collection, rewarding students for participation. The Morgantown-based company currently operates on six West Virginia campuses including WVU, Marshall, Glenville State, Concord, Fairmont, and West Liberty. The company recently secured $70,000 from Country Roads Angel Network. Funds will be used to build out their team and expand to additional West Virginia colleges as well as schools nationally as they position themselves in the higher education technology market.
Nate Wimer | Angel Round | Morgantown, WV | April 2025 | Source
MarkeDroid | Virtual power plant management
Participating Group: EstBAN
MarkeDroid is developing end-to-end virtual power plant management solutions for households in the cleantech sector. The Estonian company, founded in 2023 by Toomas Teesaar and Toomas Kärner, recently secured $184K from EstBAN, a business angel network whose members include Estonian Change Ventures, Tera Ventures, Lithuanian Practica Capital and Firstpick, and Nordic Secondary Fund from Denmark.
Toomas Teesaar | Angel Round | Estonia | May 2025 | Source
🔖 Bookmarks
🏗️ Founder Reality Check: 20VC's Harry Stebbings reminds us that 99% of startups feel chaotic inside. You're not alone, everyone's just hiding it better.
🎯 The Growth of Private Acquisitions: 40% of all $1B+ private-to-private acquisitions happened in the last year. Who do you think is getting acquired next?
📚 SEC Rules for Dummies: This great Seraf article clarifies the do’s and dont’s of private placements - what are SEC Rule 506(b) & Rule 506(c) anyway?
In partnership with the Angel Capital Association
If you want to connect with experienced angel investors, stay ahead of trends, and tap into a wealth of resources, the Angel Capital Association (ACA) is the place to be. With 15,000+ members and $650M+ invested annually, ACA brings together the best minds in angel investing.
From Angel University’s practical education to the annual ACA Summit and exclusive reports, ACA equips members with the tools and connections to make smarter decisions. I’ve really enjoyed being part of this community, and I highly recommend it to anyone serious about angel investing.
🥇 The Nugget: My Top Takeaway from This Week’s Conversation with Alycia Doxon
Investors can't find their own data 📊
Investing in cool startups is fun. Data management, tracking, and reporting? Not fun.
And according to Alycia, there are plenty of “professional” fund managers stewarding millions in LP capital that regularly struggle to locate their own investment documents or even have a pulse on which portfolio companies are still alive. Some only discover their investments went bust when Seraf's data migration projects reveal years-old email bounce backs.
From Alycia: "We have onboarded investors with 15-year-old portfolios and we literally reach out to all of the investments and it's all email kickback... they never knew. I'm particularly appalled with the funds taking LP capital—I wouldn't dare take on someone else's capital and then not know where my documents are or how much this investment was and what year, what day it actually took place.”
Takeaway: Before investing with any fund, ask these unglamorous but critical questions:
Where do you handle admin and accounting?
What's your reporting frequency and format?
Can you show me a sample portfolio report right now?
If they hesitate, deflect, or fail to provide a prompt response, you've learned everything you need to know about their operational discipline.
Want more? Check out my full conversation with Alycia 👇
🧰 Toolkit
📚 Read: Get smarter on spotting startup failure modes.
📍 Attend: Cool stuff is happening in Indy - check out RALLY 2025, where 297 VC firms with $27.6B AUM gathered last year. Keynotes by Mr. Wonderful & Molly Bloom, plus a gigantic $5M pitch competition. Get tickets now, and sign up using code "THEDILIGENTOBSERVER" for an extra $45 off.
⏰ Reclaim Your Week: Stop spending 15+ hours on angel group admin. PitchFact's managed angel ops service handles deal flow, member comms, meeting coordination and more so you can get back to what matters most. Schedule a call.*
*A message from our sponsor.
Until Next Week 👋
Thanks for reading - have a great week.
-Andrew
P.S. If you enjoyed this post, could you do me a quick favor? Hit the "like" button or leave a comment with your thoughts. It may not seem like much, but it really helps me out a ton.
How did I do this week? |