Cincinnati has seen massive startup growth in the last three years. The city has played an exceptional part in Ohio's startup revenue, generating millions of dollars through Fintech and AI startups alone.

Similarly, there are hundreds of angel investors and venture capital firms in Cincinnati that aren't just funding startups but also guiding them through different mentorship programs and networking events.

To help you with whom to pitch and secure an investment, I have filtered out these investors and prepared the list of the Top 5 Angel Investors in Cincinnati.

Top 5 Angel Investors in Cincinnati

The list contains different venture capital firms that fund startups in Cincinnati. Although many investors have identical goals (generating profits from startups), you should still see investment interests, understand whether your startup meets the requirements, and prepare a checklist to make your startup investable.

So, without further delay, let's move onto the list of angel investors.

CincyTech

Website: CincyTech (cincytechusa.com)

Investor Type: Venture Capital Firm

Investment Interests: Tech, Healthcare, and Consumer Products.

CincyTech is the most active venture capital firm in Cincinnati. Founded in 2007, the firm has invested in almost 100 startups, most related to tech and healthcare. The founder, Doug Groh, is an experienced investor working as an Asset Manager at Tocqueville Gold Fund and Co-Portfolio Manager at Sprott Gold Equity Fund.

When conducting screening tests, CincyTech funds startups that have high chances of growth. They like to fund early and seed stage businesses that can solve real-time problems and generate 5 times ROI within 3 years.

Once a startup can pass the screening tests, CincyTech analyzes its growth and provides it with funding as well as access to mentors. These mentors will ensure a successful path to these startups.

In the last decade, CincyTech has been quite active in arranging different networking events and mentorship programs. The StartupCincy Week is a quite famous networking event conducted in Cincinnati that allows investors to connect with entrepreneurs.

The firm has an investment range of $900,000 upto $4M. Some successful names in their portfolio companies are:

Losant: Losant provides an enterprise IoT platform that allows enterprises to effectively build applications and create solutions that securely scale to millions of devices.

Enable Injections: Enable Injections produces high-volume wearable drug delivery systems. They have developed the enFuse® On-Body Platform, which is designed to improve the patient experience.

Peerro: Peerro is a platform for job seekers looking for part-time, full-time, and seasonal work.

Eikonoklastes Therapeutics: Eikonoklastes Therapeutics is an early-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on rapidly advancing innovative medicines.

RC Capital

Website: RC Capital | Healthcare Growth Equity Firm (rccf.com)

Investor Type: Venture Capital Firm

Investment Interests: Tech and Healthcare. 

RC Capital is a Venture Capital firm that invests in early-stage startups. The network was founded by Kai Ouyang in 2015 and has funded around 20 startups. As an entrepreneur himself, Kai Ouyang strictly focuses on startups that can present solutions for problems related to tech and healthcare. He also looks for long-term investment, funding startups with high ROI.

Moreover, RC Capital doesn't host many networking events or accelerator programs. The investors only focus on their portfolio companies by conducting workshops and guiding them through several startup challenges.

The investment range of RC Capital ranges from $300,000 to $1M. Some of their recent investments include:

AlignedCardio: AlignedCardio is a leading partner and support services network for cardiovascular physician practices.

ModifyHealth: ModifyHealth is a tech-enabled and food-as-medicine platform. It offers meals, dietitian coaching, clinical metric tracking, and EMR connectivity.

Standard Bariatrics: Standard Bariatrics is a medical device company that specializes in the creation of surgical devices for use in sleeve gastrectomy. It was acquired by Teleflex.

Reveal Mobile: A company that provides location-based marketing, analytics, and foot traffic attribution to individuals and data-driven companies.

Converge Ventures

Website: Converge Capital Group (converge-cg.com)

Investor Type: Venture Capital Firm

Investment Interests: Fintech, Cryptocurrency, E-Commerce, and Data Security.

Converge Ventures is also an active venture capital firm operating in Cincinnati, San Fransisco, and New York City. The firm was founded by Bill Cook in the early 2000s and has funded around 250 companies. They usually fund early-stage and seed-stage ventures depending on their growth potential. Since its inception, the network has funded almost $800 Million into startups.

When funding startups, Converge Ventures follow a very strict screening test criterion. The network faces thousands of startup applications, and only a few make it through their screening tests with the most distinct ideas and highest growth potential.

Aside from investment, Converge Ventures is also very active in arranging different networking events and startup accelerator programs. Their Coffee and Converge program is well known for connecting different investors with deserving startups.

The investment range of Converge Ventures usually depends on the startup and its related sector. However, most of their early-stage investments are around $500,000.

Some of their portfolio companies are:

Chainalysis: A blockchain data platform that has recently raised a Series F round valuing the company at $8.6B. Chainalysis is now the largest enterprise SaaS company in the cryptocurrency industry.

TrustCloud: The startup allows companies to share their data security, privacy, and governance posture with auditors, customers, and board of directors

RevenueBase: The industry's largest and most accurate B2B database for marketing and sales.

Amper: Amper's IoT technology provides real-time data on operations from almost any kind of industrial machine, allowing accurate data collection without machine integration.

Heartland Ventures

Website: Heartland Ventures 

Investor Type: Venture Capital Firm

Investment Interests: Consumer Products, Healthcare, Digital Marketing, Tech, Software, Fintech and Real Estate.

Founded in 2016 by Max Brickman, Heartland Ventures is actively funding startups in Cincinnati. The network has funded 20 startups since its inception, most related to tech.

In the early years, Heartland Ventures was only focused on tech-related startups. However, they have expanded their investment interests and are funding many startups.

As for the screening tests, Heartland Ventures has easier screening tests compared with other angel investors. This is because they are going to announce new funds in 2024 and will actively fund many startup ideas, especially at the early stage.

The investment range of Heartland Ventures ranges from $100,000 upto $1M. Looking at their past investments, the firm usually invests around $600,000. Notable names in their portfolio companies are:

Workstream: Workstream is a mobile hiring and onboarding platform that streamlines the hiring process.

Lunar: Lunar is a clean energy company that designs and engineers clean energy products. It electrifies all homes and connects communities to form clean, resilient virtual power plants.

Mimir: Mimir is a software company providing tools for computer science courses. 

SpidrTech: SpidrTech is a Community Relationship Management platform to manage public safety and policing solutions for law enforcement agencies.

Parkade: Parkade provides parking management software for apartments, condos, and offices that automates parking at these locations.

Drive Capital

Website: Drive Capital - Home

Investor Type: Venture Capital Firm

Investment Interests: Healthcare, Fintech and IoT.

Drive Capital is also one of the famous investment networks operating in Cincinnati. The network was founded in 2010 by Mark Kvamme and Chris Olsen. Since their inception, they have provided funding of almost $300M to startups.

Drive Capital has a strict criterion of only funding startups that can generate 5-7 times ROI within the first 3 years. The network also focuses on conducting many accelerator programs and networking events throughout the year.

Aside from their portfolio companies, Drive Capital also arranges workshops that are accessible for everyone as long as they are interested in business learning.

The investment range of Drive Capital hasn't been disclosed. However, from most of their past investment, Drive Capital provides funding of around $500,000. Some companies in their portfolio are:

Greenlight: Greenlight is a fintech company that provides a debit card for kids that parents can manage from their phones.

CirrusMD: CirrusMD is a telehealth company that offers a virtual care platform, allowing patients to access a doctor online.

ApplyBoard: ApplyBoard provides a study abroad search, application, and acceptance process by connecting international students, recruitment partners, and academic institutions on one platform.

Hologram: Hologram offers a platform for building IoT devices, providing secure and reliable cellular connectivity across 470 carriers in 200 countries.

Circulo: Circulo is a finance-related startup. It provides Medicaid insurance using the Olive AI platform to improve every member's experience.

Wrap Up

Summing up, angel investors can definitely provide you with funding and can make your dream come true.

However, pitching to angel investors requires good communication, a great pitch deck, and patience. Although most people already focus on the first 2, I would advise you to be patient when pitching investors.

This is because most angel investors have their own definitions to define a great startup. Some may think that a good startup is because of its growth potential, while others may think differently.

That is why, when pitching investors, mentally prepare yourselves for rejection and always shortlist 4-5 venture capital firms or investors for securing an investment.

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