New York-based Angelsoft—a platform for entrepreneurs to connect with 600 angel investor groups around the world—is revamping at midnight tonight with the new name Gust, according to its CEO David Rose. And one new customer with ambitious goals will tap its services. According to Rose, Startup America Partnership—an organization launched in January and chaired by Steve Case to steer early stage companies to resources to help them grow—will use Gust to connect entrepreneurs with potential backers. “When you go to Startup America Partnership and you are looking for capital, it feeds to us,” Rose says.
Angelsoft was formed in 2004 as an online deal-flow management tool. “Angelsoft has been the platform that was the initial entry to financing for startups,” says Rose, who is also chairman of investment group New York Angels. Companies that seek angel funding, he says, file applications online. Potential investors can review the applications to help them decide whether or not to fund the companies.
Other websites, such as Funded.com, try to introduce entrepreneurs to potential backers but typically devolve into social networks because of lack of support from the investor community, Rose contends. Some 35,000 individual angel investors already use the Angelsoft system, he says.
Rose says 125,000 companies have previously filed applications for funding through Angelsoft and therefore already have profiles with Gust.
