Skip to content
i2E
  • Programs
    • For Startups
      • E3
      • Bridge2
      • OCN
    • For Students
      • Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • For Corporations
    • For Investors
  • Client Portfolio
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Programs
    • For Startups
      • E3
      • Bridge2
      • OCN
    • For Students
      • Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • For Corporations
    • For Investors
  • Client Portfolio
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Media
Search

New fund provides opportunities for investors looking to boost startup firms

Get in Touch

New fund provides opportunities for investors looking to boost startup firms
By Scott Meacham
Copyright © 2016, The Oklahoma Publishing Company

i2E provides entrepreneurs, investors and the state with a connected, well-understood continuum of capital. Our new fund, i2E Angel Fund I, will make that continuum of capital even more robust.

SeedStep Angels, Oklahoma’s largest organized angel group, has delivered enormous benefits to the entrepreneurs and startups of this state. The i2E Angel Fund I is an alternative for accredited angel investors who seek diversified investment in seed-stage companies without active participation in an angel group.

Since i2E organized SeedStep Angels in 2009, the angel group, SeedStep Angels, currently more than 50 accredited angel investors from across Oklahoma, has invested more than $7.5 million in more than 30 companies.

Organized angel groups invest far more than money. Many angels are cashed out or serial entrepreneurs themselves. They like to be hands-on with entrepreneurs. They want and are willing to commit the time to screen deals, engage in due diligence, mentor or serve on a startup’s board. Angel group members apply their industry knowledge and contacts to connect entrepreneurs with experts and even customers.

But this level of personal participation doesn’t work for everyone.

Over the years, we have talked with many accredited investors who were interested in allocating some portion of their portfolio to seed stage investing, but for whom the angel group model wasn’t quite a fit. Making investment decisions deal by individual deal takes time, personal due diligence, and requires multiple investments (and more money) to fully diversify.

The i2E Angel Fund I provides seed-stage capital with professional management and diversification, plus offering the satisfaction of investing in job and wealth creation in Oklahoma. The fund benefits from i2E’s deal flow of quality, well-vetted startups. (The fund’s primary focus is on Oklahoma companies, but to ensure adequate deal flow, the fund may invest outside the state.)

For entrepreneurs, raising capital at any stage can be challenging and extremely time consuming. This is especially true in the earliest life of the company. Raising seed-stage capital pulls company founders away from the very thing we most want them to be doing — validating markets, creating viable products and achieving other critical milestones that must be accomplished to accelerate successful new businesses.

There’s a gap in capital markets — a shortage of funding available from the seed stage through the startup stage ($250,000 to $5 million). The i2E Angel Fund I is one more option to close that gap for Oklahoma’s startups and entrepreneurs.

Read the story at NewsOK.com.

Scott Meacham is president and CEO of i2E Inc., a nonprofit corporation that mentors many of the state’s technology-based startup companies. i2E receives state appropriations from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology and is an integral part of Oklahoma’s Innovation Model. Contact Meacham at [email protected].

More News

Loading...
Blog, Featured, News
12.16.24

MidAmerica and i2E Announce Award Winners

Read more
Blog, Featured, News
11.21.24

i2E & Plains Ventures Surpasses $100M Milestone in Total Investments

Read more
Blog
09.30.24

i2E Receives 2024 Excellence in Economic Development Award from IEDC

Read more
Blog
06.18.24

Bridge2 Demo Day Returns, Highlighting Promising Oklahoma Startups

Read more
Blog, Entrepreneur's Cup Featured, Entrepreneur's Cup News
05.13.24

Student Entrepreneurs Triumph at 20th Anniversary Entrepreneur’s Cup, Winning $158,000 in Prizes

Read more
Default Featured Image
Blog, Entrepreneur's Cup News
04.24.24

Beyond the Cup: Tracking Success Stories from the Entrepreneur’s Cup Series – Jessica Kinsey

Read more
Default Featured Image
Blog, Entrepreneur's Cup News
04.23.24

Beyond the Cup: Tracking Success Stories from the Entrepreneur’s Cup Series – Nathan Fountain

Read more
Default Featured Image
Blog, Entrepreneur's Cup Featured, Entrepreneur's Cup News
04.23.24

Beyond the Cup: Tracking Success Stories from the Entrepreneur’s Cup Series – Srijita Ghosh

Read more
Default Featured Image
Blog, Entrepreneur's Cup Featured, Entrepreneur's Cup News
04.18.24

Beyond the Cup: Tracking Success Stories from the Entrepreneur’s Cup Series – MaxQ

Read more
Blog, i2E
01.30.24

i2E Celebrates Success of Inaugural Bridge2 Demo Day

Read more
Blog, i2E, News
12.18.23

i2E and MidAmerica Industrial Park announce award winners for high school entrepreneurship program

Read more
Blog, i2E
12.13.23

Entrepreneur’s Cup Marks 20 Years: Reimagined Competition and Brand – Same Entrepreneurial Spirit

Read more
i2E

Oklahoma City Office

840 Research Parkway, Suite 250
OKC, OK 73104
+1 (405) 235.2305

Tulsa Office

12 N. Cheyenne Ave, Suite 112
Tulsa, OK 74103
+1 (918) 582.5592

  • Client Portfolio
  • About Us
  • Media
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Resources
  • Funding
  • Venture Advisory

© 2025 i2E Privacy Policy

Follow us:

Linkedin Twitter Facebook Instagram Youtube

Programs

  • For Startups
    • E3
    • Bridge2
    • OCN
  • For Students
    • Entrepreneur’s Cup
  • For Corporations
  • For Investors
  • For Startups
    • E3
    • Bridge2
    • OCN
  • For Students
    • Entrepreneur’s Cup
  • For Corporations
  • For Investors
  • Client Portfolio

Services

  • Access to Funding
  • Venture Advisory Services
  • Events
  • Contact
  • About
  • Our Values
  • Our Team
  • Board of Directors
  • Corporate Partners
  • Media
i2E