Happy Thursday.

Today, we celebrate a fun milestone: we’ve officially featured 200 startups via The Diligent Observer newsletter! Since March 2025, we’ve highlighted ~3 companies that received investment from an angel network every single week, and we’ll continue doing so.

Here’s to the next 200. 🍾

Now, you might be thinking to yourself “That’s great, Andrew, congrats - what’s coming next?” Here’s the roadmap:

On to today’s issue:

Angel funding rounds announced in recent weeks, compiled from public sources or via direct announcement. These deals represent the elite few that survived an angel network’s vetting process. Note: I have not personally analyzed these companies and am sharing for informational purposes only.

📊 Angel Network Investment Tracker: 200 Deals, 106 Networks.

Participating Group: SideCar Angels

CAKE is an invite-only membership shopping platform targeting luxury fashion and beauty consumers. Members pay an annual membership fee and receive brand-specific shopping credits, called CAKE cards, valued between $50 and $450 each, redeemable at partner brands' current collections, along with early access to new releases and private sales. The company says it drives higher average order values for partner brands, and SideCar Angels recently participated in the company’s latest funding round.

Dave McLaughlin | New York, NY | May 2026 | Exclusive

Participating Group: Veterinary Angel Network for Entrepreneurs

Altimar is developing what the company describes as an AI-powered operating system for the equestrian industry, building a lifetime digital record for each horse accessible to owners, riders, trainers, veterinarians, and buyers. The platform aims to centralize health, training, and ownership history in a single portable profile. VANE, an angel investing network focused on early-stage animal health ventures, recently announced Altimar as its 39th portfolio company.

Ali Iberraken | Wellington, FL | May 2026 | Source

Participating Group: CAV Angels

Avant Genomics is developing an automated platform for liquid biopsy (blood-based cancer detection) sample preparation, replacing dozens of manual lab steps with a two-step cartridge system. The company says its platform delivers a more than 90% reduction in manual labor and more than 80% cost savings compared to conventional methods. Avant recently secured more than $3 million from TitletownTech, Halyard Ventures, Virginia Venture Partners, CAV Angels, Global Impact Fund, and other angel investors to support R&D, manufacturing, and team expansion.

Rachelle Turiello | $3M+ Round | Charlottesville, VA | May 2026 | Source

Angel networks are special because they bring together investors and entrepreneurs who are aligned around a thematic focus. Perhaps it’s regional. A sector. A university affiliation. Or perhaps it’s centered around an ideological lens.

Such is the case for Ambassadors Impact Network, an 8-year-old investor group in Dallas, TX that is exclusively focused on funding enterprises that systematically integrate Christian principles into the operations of the business.

What stood out to me from my conversation with Managing Director Will Thomas is how the group evaluates every deal on two completely independent scorecards - one for financial returns (team, market, defensibility, deal terms), and one for spiritual integration (documented values, activities, and product/service). A deal that doesn’t meet the threshold in one category doesn’t move forward - regardless of how compelling it may be in the other. This architecture creates a highly focused, targeted bullseye that makes the process of identifying a good fit straightforward for members, operators, and founders alike.

Takeaway: For investor groups with a strong emphasis on non-business screening criteria, I think this is a practice worth imitating: fully separate the two categories, and treat them with equal weight such that a deal must be a fit on BOTH to move forward in the process.

Want more? Check out my full conversation with Will 👇

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and more.

There's a version of your angel group that deploys more capital, attracts better deal flow, and retains more members year over year. But most groups don't get there because the operational burden outpaces the 1-2 part-time people trying to hold it all together with paperclips and duct tape.

Put the duct tape down. Let’s talk about how to take your group to the next level.

Thanks for reading - have a great week.

-Andrew

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