Local investors back emerging tech companies
Frontier Angels, Montana’s early stage technology investor group, has invested $400,000 in emerging technology businesses, including companies in agriculture technology, financial solutions and medical devices, the investor group said this week.
“We’re very pleased to have found some quality companies getting off the ground that we could support and help them accelerate to great commercial success,” Pat LaPointe, managing director of Frontier Angels, said in a press release. “Our group, in collaboration with angel investing groups around the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies region, are putting millions of dollars into these types of new technologies with the expectation that they will create highly skilled, high-paying jobs and help improve people’s lives, as well as provide a strong return on investment.”
The three companies “funded” over the last few months include:
- CurvaFix (www.CurvaFix.com) — a Seattle-based medical-device manufacturer with a patented new tool for improving the repair of pelvic fractures and getting people back up on their feet faster with less pain and lower overall cost to the healthcare system.
- PowerGrow (www.PowerGrowing.com) — a Phoenix-based company building large-scale, solar-powered greenhouses using advanced thermal capture technologies and using only 10 percent of the normal water required to help growers increase crop yields, capitalize on previously unusable land and create multiple growing seasons per year.
- MovoCash (www.Movo.cash) — a Walnut Creek-based company that has created a next-generation “bank in a phone” application with the ability to handle deposits, bill payments, peer-to-peer payments, credit and debit cards, all without ever having to go to a bank. The company also has innovative technologies for crypto-currency transactions (e.g. Bitcoin) as well as prevention of credit-card fraud.
“Our real goal is to be able to invest in more Montana-based technology companies over time,” LaPointe said, “and we’re constantly looking for the local entrepreneurs with great business concepts that are beyond the initial idea stage. We have members in nearly every part of Montana who are out in their communities looking for new opportunities every day. In the meantime, we continue to invite companies to come to Montana every few weeks to keep us up to speed on how technology is evolving and to share these great examples with members of the local entrepreneurial community.
“We also continue to build close relationships with other angel groups around the region and the country to ensure that when we do have Montana companies ready for funding, there will be a ready channel to help them get not just the money but the expertise they need to grow,” LaPointe said.
Upcoming meetings of the Frontier Angels will showcase new and different technology companies. Events are held regularly in Billings, Bozeman, Kalispell and Missoula. For more information on Frontier Angels, visit www.FrontierAngels.com.