Orlando, the sixth-largest metropolitan in the Southern United States, has generated around $300M from its startups in 2022. The city is witnessing a quick acceleration in startup growth, providing opportunities to many new businesses.

And since Orlando is a hotspot for startups, there are hundreds of angel investors willing to provide the required funding as well as guidance. While most of these investors are actively funding startups, many angels may not match your expectations and might not be worth pitching to.

That is why we have filtered out some investors and prepared the list of the Top 6 Angel Investors in Orlando. 

Top 6 Angel Investors in Orlando

The following list includes different Venture Capital firms and individual Angel Investors. It is important for you to do proper research before you start pitching to the investors.

DeepWork Capital

Website: DeepWork Capital

Investor Type: Venture Capital Firm

Investment Interests: Tech, Healthcare, Finance, digital business, and software.

Founded in 2015, DeepWork Capital is one of Orlando's most prominent investment networks. The network was founded by Ben and has funded 67 startups, most related to tech and healthcare.

In terms of investment interests, DeepWork capital funds a wide range of startups. During their screening tests, the investors from DeepWork Capital raise several questions related to the startup's growth potential.

Currently, the investment range of DeepWork Capital ranges from $500,000 to $4M, depending on the startup. Some of their recent portfolio companies are;

Vesteck: An early-stage medical device company that focuses on bringing its proprietary technology to the aortic repair, structural heart, and GI markets.

Astrocyte Pharmaceuticals: A drug development company that helps in the recovery and well-being of brain injury patients. 

Mobilo Card: A smart digital business card for teams. It allows users to tap and share their contact details, gather leads, and connect to over 5,000 apps and CRM tools.

Canaery: A neurotech device developer that produces devices that identify hazardous compounds at canary ports and inspection points.

Arsenal Growth

Website: Arsenal Growth – Private Equity Firm

Investor Type: Venture Capital Firm

Investment Interests: Healthcare, Cybersecurity, E-Commerce, and Fintech.

Arsenal Growth is also one of the biggest tech investment networks in Orlando. Founded by John Trbovich in 1999, the network provides huge investments to startups as long as they show massive growth potential.

Once a startup has been funded by Arsenal Growth, the experienced network of mentors guides it through different startup stages. Arsenal Growth has funded 43 startups, most of which have been acquired by other companies or have become successful brands.

Their investment range mostly depends on the startup. Most of their previous investments are in the range of $50M-$300M. Some notable names in their portfolio companies are;

Sharecare: Sharecare is a digital health company. It provides consumers with personalized health-related information, programs, and resources.

Stratifyd: Stratifyd is a business intelligence company specializing in unstructured data analytics. Stratifyd’s cloud-based services include taxonomical, analytical, and visualization services for structured and unstructured data.

Onapsis: Onapsis is a cybersecurity company that develops a platform for business-critical application security solutions.

BlueTalon: BlueTalon was a private enterprise software company that provided data-centric security, user access control, data masking, and auditing solutions for complex, hybrid data environments. It was acquired by Microsoft in 2019.

venVelo

Website: venVelo | Early-Stage Venture Fund in Florida

Investor Type: Venture Capital Firm

Investment Interests: VC Firms, Tech, Biosciences, Digital Business, Finance and Healthcare.

venVelo is one of the few Venture Capital firms in Orlando that fund startup accelerators and VC firms along with other startup sectors. The network was founded in 2012 by Peter McAlindon and has funded almost 20 startups with 11 diversity investments.

The screening tests of venVelo are conducted on a strict criterion, ensuring only the most deserving ventures make it through. Aside from their investments, venVelo also has a huge network of experienced mentors who provide the best guidance to their portfolio companies. Throughout the year, venVelo holds several mentorship programs and workshops to help their portfolio companies.

As for the investment range, venVelo doesn’t have a fixed funding range, as it depends on the startup being funded. Some of their recent portfolio companies are:

Vigilant Biosciences: Vigilant Biosciences is a subscription-based, flat-rate merchant account provider. It partners with small businesses to help them process their credit card payments. 

Erbon Software: Erbon Software is a technology company developing hotel management software focusing on hospitality technology. 

Switchboard Live: Switchboard Live is a developer of a live video streaming and syndication platform designed to attract viewers and boost subscriptions.

Florida Funders

Website: Florida Funders | Florida's Most Active Venture Capital Firm

Investor Type: Venture Capital Firm

Investment Interests: Tech, Gaming, Education, and E-Commerce.

Florida Funders is another prominent Venture Capital firm that provides funding to startups in Orlando. The network was founded by David Chitester in 2013 and has funded 50 startups, most of them being related to tech. In 2022, they have funded 8 companies, funding an amount of almost $6M. 

As for investment criteria, Florida Funders like to fund startups with high chances of future growth. They invest in unique ideas that can transform into brands generating high ROI.

The investment range of Florida Funders highly depends on the startups as they invest in a wide range of sectors. However, usually, the firm invests between $500,000 to $2M. Some of their recent portfolio companies are:

Aerosens: Aerosens is a SaaS company. It develops technology solutions to make the aviation industry more smarter and cost-efficient.

Artie: Artie is a mobile gaming platform that allows app stores to bring games directly to players on social media and video apps.

ChalkTalk: ChalkTalk is an educational training platform across all grade levels in kindergarten through grade 12. It uses artificial intelligence to generate teacher-facing lesson plans with adaptive student practice every day in the schedule.

flexEngage: An e-receipt company that provides transactional communications and marketing strategies for retail stores. Their products include digital receipts, printed offers, order and ship notifications, packaging slips, and order tracking.

Newgate Capital Partners

Website: Angel Investing and Business Brokerage | NewGate Capital Partners

Investor Type: Venture Capital Firm

Investment Interests: Cybersecurity, Healthcare, Finance, and Software.

Founded in 2000, Newgate Capital Partners is an active Venture Capital firm that funds startups. The network was founded by Tim Hannon and has funded $70M into 60 startups since its inception. 

Newgate Capital Ventures looks for startups with massive growth potential and can generate high ROI. The team of investors asks several questions to the entrepreneurs during the screening tests about why their startup is worth investing in.

The investment range of Newgate Capital ranges from $500,000 to $2M. Some of their recent portfolio companies are:

ThreatLocker Inc.: ThreatLocker is a cybersecurity company that provides enterprise-level cybersecurity tools for the Managed Services Provider (MSP) industry. 

Athliance Inc.: Athliance is a software company that provides NIL deals in college sports. 

Rentivity: Rentivity is a developer of an online automated residential lease-up platform designed to transform the way people rent and manage homes

Jacques Fu

LinkedIn: Jacques Fu

Investor Type: Individual Angel Investor

Investment Interests: E-Commerce, Software, VR, and Healthcare.

Jacques Fu is an individual angel investor and CEO of Sensily (one of the fastest 500 companies to reach “Unicorn" status in the city of Orlando). The famous entrepreneur is also the current advisor of Stax Payments and always values innovative startups that have the potential to make it big in the market.

That is why, in his screening tests, Jacques Fu values startups with unique ideas and invests accordingly. Even if a startup doesn’t show massive growth potential, Jacques Fu is known to invest in such startups and guide them through his mentorship programs. 

The investment range of Jacques Fu depends on the startup. He normally invests between $200,000 to $800,000. Some of his recent portfolio companies are:

BrandXR: BrandXR is a no-code platform and award-winning XR creative studio. It allows anyone to create Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality apps without development, engineering, or IT team required. 

Xendoo: Xendoo is a fintech company in the online accounting and bookkeeping space serving small businesses. 

InnaMed: InnaMed is a developer of a diagnostic tool that uses cloud-based health analytics and at-home blood testing to give early sickness diagnoses. 

Reclaim.ai: A smart scheduling app for Google Calendar. It is a calendar assistant and time management platform for Google Calendar used by over 14,000 companies worldwide.

Wrap Up

Summing up, angel investors can definitely act as a jumpstart force for your business.

However, even when there are so many investors in Orlando, it is possible you might find it difficult to secure funding. This can be due to an unprofessional pitch deck, lack of confidence in your business idea, or inability to answer the questions raised by the investors during the screening tests.

Work on these problems, read some tips about pitching to angel investors, remain patient, and you will definitely secure the funding for your startup.

Frequently Asked Questions