IrishAngels — 2018 Year in Review
2018 was a year of significant growth at IrishAngels. Our network now includes nearly 300 investors, our team expanded from three to six people, and our portfolio grew from 34 to 46 companies. 2018 also brought an exciting exit and significant follow-on rounds for several of our portfolio companies.
When IrishAngels network was formed in 2012, a small but active group of 40 investors signed up to be a part of the initial angel group. Over the past six years, that number has grown rapidly, making IrishAngels one of the largest angel groups in the country. Building on the strength of the IrishAngels network, IrishAngels Ventures (IAV), a $16 million seed stage fund, also began making investments in 2018.
With a growing investor base and portfolio, we have continued to expand our team. In April, we welcomed Katherine Schulman as a Senior Associate at IrishAngels Ventures. Katherine was most recently at M25, Clean Energy Trust, and The Hatchery. Julie-Anne Parrilla joined the team in late summer after many years at Nielsen and is focused on assisting our portfolio companies. Our most recent addition to the team is analyst Caroline Yeager who came to us from GE Ventures.
IrishAngels network and fund invest in seed stage companies across the United States. Combined, the network and fund deployed over $10 million into new and follow-on rounds in 2018, adding 12 companies to the portfolio:
We now have 46 portfolio companies as of the end of 2018. One former portfolio company, Rentlytics announced its acquisition by RealPage, a property management software firm, in October. IrishAngels invested in Rentlytics in early 2014 and has been a supporter of the company and CEO Justin Alanis since then. This marks the third positive exit for the IrishAngels portfolio, and we are excited to see what lies ahead for Justin and Rentlytics via the RealPage platform.
Several of the IrishAngels portfolio companies also completed large fundraising rounds in 2018. Chime offers an award-winning mobile app and debit card and was one of our first portfolio companies in 2013. The company announced a $70 million fundraise led by Menlo Ventures in May. Another early portfolio company that specializes in charting technology, TradingView, raised $37 million in a round led by Insight Venture Partners. IrishAngels invested in TradingView in 2014, shortly after the company graduated from Techstars Chicago. Since then, the company has grown rapidly and is ranked by Alexa as one of the top 600 websites in the world. The Mom Project, a digital talent marketplace that connects professional women with world class companies, joined the IrishAngels portfolio in early 2018, and after a year of phenomenal growth, the company raised a round of $8 million in December from investors including Grotech Ventures and Initialized Capital with participation from both IrishAngels and IrishAngels Ventures.
With an exciting year behind us, we are gearing up for 2019. We invite you to subscribe to this blog to stay in touch with us and receive relevant portfolio news and insights from IrishAngels network and fund!
