An angel investor group with ties to Silicon Valley is opening a Detroit chapter called TiE Detroit Angels.
TiE is a global, not-for-profit, non-political, and non-religious organization dedicated to fostering entrepreneurs around the world. When TiE first started it stood for The Indus Entrepreneurs, which signifies the ethnic South Asian or Indus roots of the founders. Today TiE stands for Talent, Ideas and Enterprise.
TiD Detroit Angels will focus on forming an investment consortium of wealthy individuals willing to provide seed capital to promising startups in Metro Detroit. The group expects to grow to a size of about 30 members within its first year and will look at the pitches from dozens of local startups from a number of different sectors.
"The idea is to get all of this activity under one umbrella," says Sonali Vijayavargiya, chair of TiE Detroit Angels. "That way it will be more impactful and we can build on it."
TiE Detroit Angels is also looking to connect, support and develop Detroit's entrepreneurial ecosystem and connect it with other opportunities around the world. It plans to help provide these sorts of top-tier emerging companies with early stage investment and talent support. TiE Detroit Angels will start accepting business plans in January.
Source: Sonali Vijayavargiya, chair of TiE Detroit Angels
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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