News

The Southwest Angel Network’s Executive Director, Bob Bridge, was invited to serve on a panel at the Impact Investing Conference held on May 24th at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. The conference was organized by the Texas Impact Alliance, a statewide organization working to scale social and environmental impact in the state of […]

The Southwest Angel Network is pleased to announce an investment in Brobe International. Brobe is a thoughtful, empathetic company that designs high quality, functional, products for humans affected by health challenges. By listening intently, empathizing authentically, and generously supporting patients and caregivers, they continually find opportunities and to develop items that offer comfort & dignity. The […]

The Southwest Angel Network is pleased to announce an investment in Yotta Solar. Yotta Solar harnesses our Sun’s abundant but intermittent energy simply and efficiently, which has been up to now a major challenge. SolarLEAF™ represents a step change in storage technology with the battery and power electronics mounted behind solar PV modules using existing […]

In support of its social-impact mission, the Southwest Angel Network has pledged to increase diversity and inclusion in the tech community by taking actions outlined in the startup diversity and inclusion pledge. The Startup Diversity and Inclusion Pledge is being launched in Austin, Texas in 2019 with plans to expand nationally. Diversity and inclusion matter for a […]

Bob Bridge, Executive Director of our network, will be speaking at the annual conference of the ACA that will be held in Chicago at the end of April. Bob will be leading a session entitled, “Measuring Impact … and Impact Results”. The session will explore how to bring the same level of quantitative analysis to […]

The Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce works to brighten the future of disadvantaged students through their Superstars Competition, which teaches entrepreneurial skills to students and which culminates in a city-wide competition for students from Austin’s five Title 1 high schools. Heaven Leigh Contreras being award the Social-impact Scholarship The Southwest Angel Network is involved […]

The Southwest Angel Network is pleased to announce that the network has led the initial investment in Binary Bridge. The company, under the leadership of Lori Most, has the mission to improve access to healthcare and increase the quality of care in underserved locations, providing software solutions for mobile clinics in remote, low-resource areas. BackpackEMR targets […]

The Southwest Angel Network is pleased to announce two new investments, in Scriptly Rx and ResilientGrid. Scriptly Rx The mission of Scriptly Rx is to help people save money at the pharmacy on prescription medications. With or without insurance, people save up to 90% at 65,000 pharmacies nationwide! Too many people have to choose. Every day […]

The Southwest Angel Network is pleased to announce that members have invested in teleCALM, which allows family caregivers to control phone usage by family members who face memory or judgment challenges while still allowing those members to continue to use the phone that they are familiar with.  This protects loved one from phone solicitors while keeping them connected […]

With school safety and student mental health a national priority after school shootings, Austin-based, AI EdTech company OneSeventeen Media has launched a mobile-delivered mental health and behavior management tool for elementary schools. The ThinkingApp pilot launched May 2018 at the request of Austin ISD in direct response to a new law by the Texas State Legislature prohibiting behavioral […]

The Southwest Angel Network is pleased to join angel network Golden Seeds in investing in DayOne Response, which was founded and is headed by Tricia Compas-Markman. Addressing the vital need for clean water in disaster relief situations, DayOne Response has developed one solution called the DayOne Waterbag. This is a 10-litre personal water purification unit that […]

The Southwest Angel Network is pleased to announce that it has led the investment in Accelerist. Accelerist is the industry’s only matchmaking and measurement platform for companies and causes. The relationship between companies and social causes is powerful. Accelerist believes profit and purpose partnerships mean too much in today’s world to leave it to chance […]

The Southwest Angel Network has made an investment in Family Plan, which works to reduce the stress on a family following a divorce.  Using Family Plan, parents can manage custody scheduling on a shared calendar in real time, arrange and make payments instantaneously and with authentication, and make and log texts and emails to support open communication […]

Members of the Southwest Angel Network were mentors in the recently completed Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Superstars Competition. This program helps students at five Austin Title 1 high schools to develop start-up company business plans and presentation skills. At the recent city-wide final competition, our network awarded the Social-Impact award to Maria Hernandez […]

Bob Bridge, the angel network’s Executive Director, has been recognized nationally as a leader in social impact investing. Bob recently served on a Social Impact panel at the recent national ACA  Leadership Conference in Houston. Bob has also been invited to moderate a panel discussion on “The Growth of Impact Investing” program at the ACA’s April […]

With a follow-on investment in OneSeventeen Media and an initial investment in College Consortium, the Southwest Angel Network has now made over $1M in cumulative investments since its founding at the beginning of 2016.

College Consortium, led by a highly experienced team,  provides tools that allow colleges to offer students more course offerings, allowing students to graduate in a shorter time, at lower cost and with less student debt. College Consortium can be especially impactful for students whose life-changes may have discouraged them from finishing their degrees.

Key elements of the pledge that are most relevant to our angel network are: Taking a self-defined percentage of pitch meetings, starting at 10%, from women, minorities, and people who identify as LGBTQ to help open up new deal sources Mentoring women, minorities and people who identify as LGBTQ Encouraging portfolio companies and their boards […]

The Southwest Angel Network is pleased to announce that it Joined the Central Texas Angel Network in investing in On the Dot.  On the Dot providens “Your daily dose of inspiration absorbed in less than 4 minutes”, and is the only newsletter of its kind that, at the click of a button, lets you listen to […]

A wonderful story about Beth and Amy, and their work to better the lives of children and youth. “Beth and Amy had different early childhood experiences. As co-founders, this provides them a unique yin–yang approach to product development. They’re both motivated to build world class mobile apps that help today’s kids have safe access to […]

Juan has joined as a Director and will be assisting the Bob in managing the network. Juan has extensive experience as a Mentor, Startup Investor and Sales Consultant, and is focused on helping early stage companies get to the next level. He particularly enjoys working with B2B SaaS companies, platforms, communications, health tech, beer and […]

See the list of networks. The Southwest Angel Network is the only network in Texas focused on social-impact companies, and one of a handful in the US with that focus. In the 2nd quarter we had 25 companies apply for funding, including 10 from Austin, 10 from Dallas and Houston, 3 from California, one from […]

An Innovation Partner is an organizations that supports commercialization, entrepreneurship, and translation of National Science Foundation funded technologies into the market. Partners serve as a resource or sounding board for the research teams. One of the social-impact areas of interest for the Southwest Angel Network is the environment. Therefore we are pleased to have been invited to become an […]

Aiqueous helps water utilities implement water conversation and water quality programs, and is led by a strong team with deep experience in working with utilities.

The Southwest Angel Network seeks to make a return for investors while helping social-impact startups address significant societal problems. But we are more than just about investing. We also look for opportunities to advance the social-good in our community. Recently members of the angel network participated as mentors in a high-school entrepreneurship competition sponsored by […]

Startup Investor Spotlight: Southwest Angel Network

2016 was a great first year for the Southwest Angel Network. The network ran four quarterly funding cycles. A total of 85 social-impact companies applied for funding during the year, including companies from the Austin, Houston, Dallas, the bay area, the east coast and the Midwest. The angels got to meet very interesting and talented […]

An eleven week social-good entrepreneur workshop, that was organized by the Southwest Angel Network in conjunction with other Austin organizations, ended with an elevator-pitch competition. The winner of the competition was Sunconomy. Sunconomy is not only changing the construction industry by using brand new 3D concrete print technology to print an affordable house in a day. […]

The Southwest Angel Network participated in the Social Impact Epic Office Hours at the Capital Factory. The Southwest Angel Network participated in the Intro to the UT & Austin Startup Ecosystem event at the UT McCombs School of Business.

Austin ranks number three in the country for social impact businesses.  “Washington, D.C., and San Francisco ranked No. 1 and 2 respectively, according to the Halcyon Incubator,…….” The Southwest Angel Network invests in Flow Below, which improves the fuel efficiency  and lowers the carbon footprint of long-haul tractor trailer trucks.

The Southwest Angel Network organized an event at St. Edward’s University discussing how Austin can be the national hub for social entrepreneurship. Panel participants includes senior representatives from St. Edward’s, Tech Ranch, Austin+SocialGood, SWAN, Mission Capital and start-up company Aiqueous. Six more companies and Urban Co-Lab had tables in the foyer. The on-line new source, Built-in-Austin, ran a story […]

The  Austin Business Journal cover story How It Pays To Do Good. “Investors are clamoring to find startups that cannot just do well, but give back to society while they do business. There’s a difference. Money pretty much does grow on trees for Abianne Miller Falla and her sisterJennaDee Detro…… “

The  Austin Business Journal reported that Socially conscious investing gains momentum in Austin. “Social-impact investing continues to gain momentum in Central Texas as entrepreneurs try to make nice — while making money. The latest venture is a crowdfunding portal called Diversity Fund LLC, designed for investments in LGBT and minority-led businesses. Charlie Jackson, the CEO of software […]

The website Built-in-Austin has a news article on Austin social-impact startup ventures. “Even in today’s checkered tech startup landscape, most B2C revenue models fall into one of two buckets: Give away something cool and support it with ads or create a marketplace and take a cut of every transaction. Then, there are social impact startups……”

Read the October 2015 Austin Business Journal article on SWAN Impact. “An Austin entrepreneur is recruiting investors to be part of an angel investor group aimed at backing startups that promote socially conscious causes. Bob Bridge, previously CEO of InView Technology Corp., is in the early stages of establishing the Southwest Angel Network (SWAN) for […]