VentureAlberta Forum is one of the largest gatherings of business angels in the City of Calgary and Edmonton, with a significant affiliation to the larger InvestIN Forum of Angel Investors

http://www.theinvestinforum.com/ as well as strong ties to the other Canadian Angel Investor forums.

Venturealberta Forum is relatively new, having been established in the spring of 2003, with a community of members having oil and gas, information and communication technologies, biotech, real estate, health and life sciences, hospitality, and transportation backgrounds.  VentureAberta Forum has now grown to over 40 accredited investor members in Calgary and 15 members in Edmonton which was founded in January 2006. As of November 2006, the Forum had assisted 21 companies with capital and another dozen with resources and customer referrals.

VentureAlberta Forum is about developing on natural strengths in Calgary and Edmonton — a culture of opportunism and the desire for strong community. Calgary already is a financial hub in Canada, with particular focus in natural resources, business services, and agriculture. Edmonton is the base for $60 billion in capital projects and is the strongest economy in the country. The VentureAlberta Forum is being built to capitalize of those strengths and expand the reach into other sectors.

The Forum is accredited investor only membership (However, 10% of the membership is set aside for Resource Partners and Sponsors) and is intended to be a hub of activity and international focus with our other Angel partners, including our partners in Dallas, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Denver. The investors establish the rules, the areas of interest, and the endeavours of the Forum.

Finally, VentureAlberta Forum is about best practices. Utilizing a strong due diligence process, the investor led Forum, and a strong follow on reporting requirement, the Forum utilizes different existing business angel models already in place to provide the best possible service level to the membership.

We have chosen to partner with the InvestIN Forum of Angel Investors because of their keen interest in association with us. Experienced Investors with a keen eye to new associations and expanded networks is a “value add” the organizers of VentureAlberta Forum can pass on to our members as well as entrepreneurs.

While the InvestIN Forum is an angel investor network that has its roots in Texas, it has expanded to include chapters in Austin, Dallas, Boston, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, WestLake and our chapters in Calgary and Edmonton Alberta.  Additional affiliations throughout Canada and the United States allow quality deal flow for our members and access to capital for our local companies.

Each Chapter brings unique strengths to the InvestIN Forum community on both an investment and deal flow basis.   Members wishing to engage deals in other chapters may freely do so.  Likewise, entrepreneurs may seek additional capital, mentoring and networking opportunities at different chapter locations.  This framework of cross networking allows InvestIN Forum members and presenting companies to seize a geographically diverse association of membership and deal flow, opening up unforeseen investing and market opportunities.

Thus, VentureAlberta Forum (as an associate of the InvestIn Forum) is able to provide the mechanism whereby private equity can be mobilized to build the business leaders of tomorrow in Calgary and Edmonton, and beyond, allowing the entrepreneur to take advantage of enhanced early stage networking, mentoring and financing opportunities, and the investor to embrace fortified angel investing infrastructure.