Venture to Fund High-Tech Start-Ups

Tech Coast Angels founder Luis Villalobos has co-founded a new high-tech business incubator in Orange County called GazelleLab, which will open in Irvine in mid-January.

Modeled after Bill Gross’ successful Idealab in Pasadena, GazelleLab will provide funding for fledgling companies to help them get off the ground. Members of the Tech Coast Angels will act as mentors and may invest in companies that show potential for success.

Tech Coast is a network of individual investors in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Typically, angel groups are the first source of outside money for a company starting up and contribute $50,000 to $2 million for an ownership stake, usually 20% to 40%. As Gross does with Idealab, Villalobos and other Tech Coast members will come up with ideas for new companies that GazelleLab would fund and staff with key executives.

Villalobos, GazelleLab’s chief executive, picked up $4.2 million of GazelleLab’s initial seed funding from Tech Coast, which will receive about a 20% stake in the incubator, he said.

The creation of GazelleLab reflects Orange County’s increasing importance as a hotbed of high-tech entrepreneurship.

“There’s a ton of talent here. It’s just exploding,” Villalobos said.

Villalobos is one of GazelleLab’s five co-founders. Others include Mark Lilly, co-chairman of Bizbuyer.com and a former Disney executive, and former Diedrich Coffee chief executive Larry Goelman.