Start-Up Firm Hoping an Angel Is a Click Away
A Newport Beach company is the first in the nation to take part in a new service on the Internet designed to help start-up companies raise investment capital.
Innovative Device Technologies Inc., a budding company with a product that works like a miniature joystick for surfing the Internet, is like most young firms in that it needs to raise money to bring its product to market.
Traditionally, that has meant turning to venture capital firms or so-called angels, wealthy investors willing to take risks on small companies with the hope of a big payoff.
But Innovative Device Technologies is taking advantage of a new service called the Angel Capital Electronic Network, which was developed in part by the Small Business Administration. The Internet-based program is something of an online catalog of investment opportunities for individuals who are given access to the service after going through an application process.
Companies listed on the service also have to go through an extensive evaluation process and complete government securities registration forms. Legal fees for these registrations can cost more than $20,000, according to officials at UC Irvine’s Accelerate Technology Small Business Development Center, which helps administer the program.
For more information about the program, contact UCI at (714) 509-2990.
Greg Miller covers high technology for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at greg.miller@latimes.com
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