Nittany Angels
Empowering Penn State startups with capital, strategic guidance, connections, referrals, and more.
Nittany Angels - What is it?
New! Penn State is establishing a university affiliated Angel Investment Network. This is a group of individuals and qualifying entities that invest in Penn State affiliated rapid growth companies.
Members benefit from access to potentially high-return investment opportunities.
Penn State affiliated companies benefit from capital to grow and the University benefits when companies established with Penn State intellectual property prosper.
Purpose and Goals
- Support Penn State related high growth companies with capital, strategic guidance, referrals and much more
- Provide potentially above market return private company investment opportunities to members
- Support commercialization of Penn State intellectual property
- Expand the Penn State brand
Nittany Angels work with Penn State founders or University related companies to commercialize Penn State intellectual property, realize dreams, achieve financial success and generate return on investment.
Benefits, Requirements, Opportunities and Considerations
Nittany Angels Member Benefit Package
- Individual, trust, LLC, or entity wholly owned by accredited investors.
- Access to curated deal flow of early stage equity investment opportunities in Penn State affiliated companies
- Support commercialization of Penn State intellectual property
- Group membership – Network benefit of working with alumni with diverse backgrounds and similar investment interests
- Collaboration with experts on investment assessment (power of experience and expertise of many members in different domains)
- Experienced leadership for investment structure and pricing
- Potential for above market financial returns (comes with higher risk)
- Administrative support with tax preparation and portfolio management
- A “different” way to support Penn State
- Learn cool stuff
Member Criteria - Requirements
- Accredited investor per SEC definition
- Affiliated with Penn State – alumnus, parent, friend
- Risk tolerant and ready to invest in early stage private companies
- Willing and able to invest meaningful time – screening or diligence
- Domain knowledge valuable to the group
- Agree to establish a bank account as designated by the University to facilitate investment transfers
Investment Opportunities
- Penn State affiliated companies – broad definition
- Focus on early stage (Series Seed or A) but opportunistic
- Sector agnostic
- Addressing a clear problem in a large market
- Technology enabled product or service that can scale
- Market acceptance and validation – revenue – repeat customers
Other Aspects and Considerations of Membership
- Annual dues of $1855
- Member makes individual investment decisions and invests
- Member onboarding and education available
- Invest only individual’s funds and not on behalf of anyone else
- Member must disclose a business or financial relationship with a prospective investment or portfolio company
- Member is expected to participate actively in the group with screening or due diligence on prospective companies and / or representing the group in the Penn State entrepreneurial eco-system and beyond
- Member is expected to attend a high percentage of meetings
Get Involved
The Nittany Angels Network and Fund is made possible through a generous $1.5 million gift from Penn State alumnus and volunteer leader Dr. Richard A. Gottscho. His support helps connect early-stage Penn State startups with accredited investors and provides critical capital to advance University-born innovations.