We invest in the best founders, technologies, and products creating new opportunities that don't already exist, or that are changing current ones to make them better on a transformational level. We invest at Pre-Seed | Seed | Series A across the Americas (North and South). We aim to capitalize undeserved markets (typically outside the coasts) and exist to meet the demand flood of founders that can now startup tech companies at cheaper cost, with leaner teams and faster timelines by an order of magnitude less than in just the previous generation.

Chicago is the global hub for #FoodTech. We connect the next generation of Food Tech entrepreneurs to the best capital, and give them a plan and a pathway to get there. Billions in Venture Funds and CVCs are based here, including: Valor Equity, Evolv, Seed 2 Growth, Tyson, Cultivian Sandbox just to name a few. At Newlin, headquartered in Fulton Market a stone's throw from Vital Proteins, and recently now Mondelez, we are at the epicenter of food, agriculture, and restaurant technology innovation. #Consumerism drives all that is Chicago as the third largest city and consumer market in the country- it's Howard Shultz's favorite test market, and Starbucks recently opened their largest flagship roastery in the world on Michigan Avenue. #InsurTech- Aon, State Farm, Allstate, AmWins, Hub Group, Kemper among many more leaders in Insurance that call Chicago home base. With deep experience in #FoodTech #Consumer #InsurTech and #IoT we invest in several industry verticals at the early stages.

We support a diverse founder base, with over 1/3 of the current Newlin angel portfolio backed by women and minority-led founders. In fact, part of our thesis is to hunt for hungry immigrant founders. A recent Newsweek article pointed to the fact that nearly half of Fortune 500 companies are run by immigrants or their direct descendants. Ironically, the demographics in terms of immigration in many parts of Brazil, Chile, and Argentina, even Mexico trace similar roots back to many European countries fleeing war and famine as they did to the US. In Food Tech, there is no better overlap between the first and second largest Agriculture markets in the world- The United States and Brazil, respectively. We plan to cross-pollinate and synergize technology portfolio platforms that can be leveraged across similar markets.

Investment Criteria:

-Food Tech / Internet of Food / Internet of Things / InsurTech / Consumer / B2B / B2C

-Pre-Seed / Seed / Series A

-Founded in North or South America

-Minimum of a Friends and Family Round Previously Raised

We have built a proprietary inbound and outbound dealflow strategy over the past five plus years, which is proving its fruits in the strength of the current portfolio already. We have built deep relationships with founders and plan to secure future round allocation wherever possible for deals we wish to follow-on. We do not have valuation cap limits per se. Because of our disciplined investment criteria our investment hit rate ratio is well under 1% of the deals we review.

Disclosures:

Understand that startup investing is incredibly risky, illiquid, and highly cyclical. You should never allocate more than 2-3% of your assets to this space and you should only invest what you are willing to lose in its entirety. In the best of circumstances, it is likely that the returns will resemble a power law distribution... meaning 1 deal in a portfolio of 30+ may have more $ gains than every other company combined. With this in mind, we observe that the best angels make small bets in a large number of startups rather than a large bet on 1 or 2. Liquidity for even the best investments may be 10+ years out or in some cases never.

Grant will syndicate all investments where the founders are willing to offer a significant allocation ($100k+). We will periodically invest separately via angel groups or online platforms. We may or may not choose to follow on.