Open Ocean Robotics wins Canada’s Most Promising Startup of 2019 Award from NACO
We are honoured to have won the Most Promising Startup of 2019 Award from NACO at the World Angel Investment Summit. NACO is the National Angel Capital Organization, a community of over 4000 Canadian angel investors who have invested $853,000,000 in more than 2000 start-up companies, and this award was sponsored by BDO and Panache Ventures.
As a startup company, who is raising its first round of financing and has just taken an investment from angel investors, we understand the pivotal role these early stage investors play in growing our entrepreneurial ecosystem. They are the cheerleaders of start-up companies and they put their money and their time behind their convictions. They invest in companies when they are still too risky for traditional venture capital and not earning enough revenue for a bank loan, and they’re in it for the long haul, staying with a company for 5 years or more.
As important as their financial support is, often it’s the other things that are even more valuable. Angel investors are generally really smart folks who have built successful businesses and are well connected with other smart talented people. This makes them incredible mentors, cheerleaders and facilitators. They have seen companies succeed and fail, and can help early stage entrepreneurs ensure they land in the former category. They leverage their extensive network to make connections to people you would never meet otherwise but are instrumental in building partnerships, gaining customers and securing follow-on financing.
To have an organization that represents these values select us as the Most Promising Startup of 2019 is incredible and we now need to live up to that honour!