SWAN Impact Network leadership participated in a panel which discussed “How do investors define Impact?” and the various sources of funding for impact start-up companies, including angel networks, investment funds and Donor Advised Funds.
The panel was co-hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship.
The SWAN Impact Network made a seed investment in ClearFlame Engine Technologies early in 2020, and is pleased to now announce a follow-on investment one year later.
ClearFlame is taking the diesel fuel out of the diesel engine for heavy-duty industries. Their disruptive, patented engine technology maintains all the rugged performance and practicality of traditional diesel engines that end users expect while completely replacing petroleum-based diesel fuel with decarbonized liquid fuels—nearly eliminating all criteria pollutants and emissions.
ClearFlame offers a rapid pathway to widespread emissions reduction for heavy-duty industries by leveraging existing production capacity and infrastructures. Moreover, our technology lowers costs—for both OEMs and end users—by eliminating the need for complex aftertreatment technologies.
The heavy-duty engine industry is approaching a time when the continued pressure to reduce CO2 and diesel criteria pollutants (NOx and particulates) is leading to the elimination of diesel-fueled engines. It’s why heavy-duty engine manufacturers, fleet owners, end users, and regulators are aggressively seeking viable alternative technologies. ClearFlame is the future of diesel engine technology.
The SWAN Impact Network is pleased to announce an investment in Advanced Ionics. Advanced Ionics is providing Clean Hydrogen for Heavy Industry, designing a new generation of electrolyzers specifically for industrial users, such as ammonia/fertilizer production, hydrogenation, metal fabrication, glass, methanol, synthetic fuels/chemicals, and power plants, among others. They replace existing hydrogen manufacturing with a more affordable, cleaner alternative.
Covid social distancing has continued to keep the SWAN Impact Network virtual. We look forward later this year to resuming in-person meetings. But distancing has not slowed SWAN down.
In the first quarter of 2021, SWAN’s angel membership grew by 50%. Our new members joined us from Austin, Dallas, Houston and New Mexico.
And our first quarter investment dollars equaled the total amount of investments made in 2020.
SWAN remains a national leader in social and environmental impact angel investing, with members and investments from across the US.
The SWAN Impact Network is pleased to announce that it led an investment in Sonnest. Sonnest is transforming cardiac ultrasound. Their Electrast™ is the first electrically sensitive imaging agent for assessing and monitoring the perfusion, structure, and function of the heart, allowing low cost ultrasound procedures to provide information only previously available from much higher cost scans. Electrast™ is a contrast agent that activates with ultrasound and the heart’s local electric field if the heart tissue is perfused and viable. Sonnest allows Doctors to:
From the Desk of Juan Thurman, Director, SWAN Impact Network
The SWAN Impact Network started 2020 excited about the year. We put forth aggressive goals and plans to achieve them. We had our first quarterly pitch dinner in person in February on the campus of St. Edwards’s University. They were great hosts and we had 3 interesting pitches, a good dinner, and a vigorous exchange of ideas.
Then the pandemic hit. Like most, we were caught flat footed and at first did not know how to react. Then our Executive Director, Bob Bridge, and our amazing board snapped into action. We moved all our events online and in April offered a webinar, attended by 200 investors and entrepreneurs, that addressed investing during the pandemic.
Then, most importantly, we reached out to all our portfolio companies to see how they were impacted by the pandemic and if they needed help. We had productive, if difficult, discussions. Those conversations led to four of our portfolio companies receiving a follow-on investment to help them weather the covid-related economic crisis.
We found our footing mid-year and adjusted. We experienced a slowdown in Q2 that leaked into Q3. Fewer entrepreneurs applied and investors were more conservative with their capital, but we moved forward confident that things would get better and that impact investing is even more important now. The upside was that geography became less of an issue and we had more out of state and international applicants than ever before. In that spirit, our Angels selected and funded 3 new companies in 2020. And we are now, in January, funding two companies that began due diligence in 2020.
2020 had its share of silver linings and for that we are grateful to our angels, sponsors, entrepreneurs, associate members, interns, and the greater impact community. We ended 2020 with nearly 60 angels and having invested over $6M in social impact companies since our inception in 2015.
Some of our portfolio companies were able to raise venture capital in 2020 and one merged with a larger company. All our portfolio companies that went into the pandemic with trepidation have come out stronger and more resilient.
We have added board members and associates keeping diversity and inclusion in mind. Speaking of diversity and inclusion, we have added a chapter in Dallas and a new Executive Director, Heather Gilker, to run it. We are excited about SWAN in the big D.
We are off to a fast start in 2021. In January we are investing a total of over $1M in two companies from our 2020 funding cycles. And we are in the middle of our Q1 down selection process and will invite 3 promising impact startups to pitch to the network on February 11th.
We are also rebranding the network and have done a complete overhaul of our website. Southwest Angel Network has served us well, but as we continue to expand and see deals from of all over the US, we have decided to rebrand as the SWAN Impact Network.
Lastly, we have launched the SWAN Impact Fund. The fund will work alongside the network and invest in later stage deals focused on health tech and clean energy. Please keep an eye out for a more formal announcement in the coming months.
If you have impact investing in your 2021 plans or are interested in learning more please visit our website, swanimpact.org and connect.
2020 Follow on Investments:
OneSeventeen Media
Accelerist
Curb
Family Plan
Shyft
2020 Initial Investments
Don’t Get Mad Get Paid
SpeechVive
ClearFlame
After performing extensive due diligence, the SWAN Impact Network is pleased to announce that it has led the investment in ATX LED. ATX LED is revolutionizing residential home lighting with a next-generation architecture that extends LED lights’ operating lives, supports advanced smart home automation, and significantly reduces the cost of installing lighting in new homes, by reducing labor and copper costs.
When the Southwest Angel Network was founded in 2015, the acronym SWAN became commonly used, both inside and outside the network.
The network likes that popular usage and in 2021 is rebranding itself as the SWAN Impact Network.
Thinking about becoming an impact investor? Are your thoughts and questions the same or different from others? What are they saying?
The Southwest Angel Network recently conducted a survey regarding what makes impact investing attractive and what holds back a decision to become an impact investor.
Here is what we learned.
Survey Question: When you were personally considering joining SWAN what were the top two most compelling factors that most attracted you?
Survey Answers: For SWAN angels, by far the biggest appeal was a desire to make a positive impact on the world. Secondly, many of the angels had no prior angel investing experience and wanted to learn about investing. SWAN is structured to provide that education.
Survey Question: When our SWAN angels have introduced SWAN to other potential angels, what are the ideas that most strongly resonate?
Answer: Just like the folks who have joined, potential angels like our impact mission, and the ability to learn about angel investing.
Survey Question: We asked our angels what their pre-joining concerns were and also what concerns they heard when introducing SWAN to potential angels.
Survey Answers: The primary concerns were the amount of investment dollars required , the amount of time required and their lack of experience in angel investing.
The good news is that SWAN assumes that new angels have no startup investment experience. We encourage new SWAN angels to not start investing until they have benefited from our educational webinars and have observed how our experienced angels think about assessing investment risks during our down-selection and due diligence processes.
Further, SWAN does not have a required minimum investment amount. Rather, we suggest that angels think top-down about how much of their assets they are willing to put into Impact investing, and then determine how to use that budget to build a portfolio of 20 investments over a period of years.
And typical of the 80/20 rule, some of our angels enjoy spending significant time advancing the mission of SWAN. And for others, the perfectly reasonable commitment of time is attending our quarterly pitch events, and reading the due diligence reports that SWAN has produced as the final step before we ask angels if they would like to invest in a company that has made it through our rigorous evaluation process.
Climate & Capital Media’s “Ten to Watch” list highlight leaders delivering real change to address the world’s growing climate emergency. Ten to Watch represents an important group of young entrepreneurs offering economic and financial climate solutions. From low-cost energy for the developing world and unconventional collaborative financing systems to software control of energy systems and kinetic energy generation, these leaders are working to address some of the biggest issues of energy and climate change.
The Top Ten includes SWAN portfolio CEOs Ugwem Eneyo, the founder of SHYFT Power Solutions and Omeed Badkoobeh, the founder of Yotta Energy.