Investors' Circle will hold its Fall Venture Fair Oct. 26 to 28 with presentations by 15 start-ups who are seeking funding at World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St., on Thursday. This will be the first time the group has held the event in Philadelphia, in part because a chapter formed here within the last two years.
Started in California in 1992, this private angel network has had a hand in helping its members invest $146 million into 225 companies and small-venture funds.
Cliff David, one of four founders of Investors' Circle Philadelphia, said the local chapter has 14 paid members. The group meets monthly at the Center City law offices of Blank Rome L.L.P. to consider the business plans of two or three firms.
David, a Lower Gwynedd resident who has worked in the environmental-conservation field, said he was looking forward to hearing the pitches of and meeting the entrepreneurs behind the presenting companies.
Venture fair organizers said 15 were chosen from among 250 applicants. They include a developer of an educational video game, a publisher of a daily financial newsletter aimed at women, and a company that uses music and movement to help children with learning and developmental difficulties.
David said he got interested in "triple bottom-line" or impact investing after seeing that governments and nonprofit groups can do only so much with their limited resources. "There is a need to tap the capital markets. That's really where the money is," he said.
The other group meeting in Philadelphia is the Social Venture Network, presenting its fall conference at the Hyatt Regency at Penn's Landing from Thursday to Sunday. It was founded in 1987 by Josh Mailman, an angel investor, and Wayne Silby, a founder of the mutual fund family now known as the Calvert Foundation.
