PARTEQ Angel Network to Boost Kingston Technology Companies

Published on: 2011/07/05 - in Releases

PARTEQ Innovations at Queen’s University is launching a novel opportunity to boost economic development in Kingston.

The PARTEQ Angel Network aims to build and sustain Kingston companies developed out of breakthrough university research by linking a critical mass of angel investors, including local entrepreneurs and Queen’s alumni, and a pooled investment fund, with promising early stage technologies.

The network is an extension of PARTEQ’s pioneering work in growing promising research discoveries into companies that are making an impact around the world, says John Molloy, President and CEO of PARTEQ, the Queen’s-founded technology transfer office.

“Over the past 25 years our office has helped build more than 45 companies, many of them with global markets, and we couldn’t have done it without the help of angel investors,” he says.

“The difference today is that the climate and the incentives for growing these technologies has never been better. Given these factors, what better way to boost the success potential of these promising companies than by combining our experience in managing early stage technologies with the entrepreneurial acumen and investment dollars of Kingston angels and Queen’s alumni.”

“Angels” are investors who fund early-stage companies. Often they are the first to recognize the potential in a new technology opportunity, and their investments support the crucial early growth stages of promising technology companies.

Unlike other angel networks, where the onus is on investors to screen investment opportunities themselves, the PARTEQ Angel Network gives investors a second option: the opportunity to invest in a pooled fund.

“The pooled fund approach appeals to investors who are interested in investing in early stage companies, but lack the time or skills to perform their own due diligence on these opportunities,” Mr. Molloy says.

The PARTEQ Angel Network has already signed on its first angel: the Kingston Economic Development Corporation (KEDCO) has seeded the network with a founding contribution of $50,000.

“KEDCO is proud to participate in the PARTEQ Angel Network.  The commercialization of applied research at Queen’s brings great opportunity to the City of Kingston in terms of creating jobs and investment,” says Jeff Garrah, CEO of KEDCO.

“Kingston is home to numerous PARTEQ spinoff companies – BKIN Technologies, Endetec, Qubit Systems, Jolly Giant Software and Performance Plants, to name just a few.  The global importance of the discoveries developed, and the new companies that are created, speak to the innovative and supportive business environment in Kingston.”

The PARTEQ Angel Network is now raising capital for its first two investment opportunities.  Switchable Solutions Inc., which recently launched its first pilot manufacturing plant for recycling plastics, is developing a ‘game-changing’ green solvent with a broad range of applications, including oil sands recovery; and SPARQ Systems Inc., a developer of solar photovoltaic microinverters, is poised to launch its product line across North America early next month. Both companies are founded on research by award-winning Queen’s innovators.

Potential investors can learn more about the network, and become a member, at the PARTEQ Angel Network website.

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Release source: Kingston Economic Development Corporation