Tim Foley Illustration
When Todd Zion began looking for funds to launch Smart-Cells, a new company developing self-regulating insulin-delivery systems for patients with diabetes, he needed to raise just shy of $1.25 million, a number that "doesn't even show up on the radar screens of big venture capital firms," he says. So he decided to forgo venture capital (VC) and instead sought out "angel" investors, wealthy individuals willing to entrust their money and share their hard-earned expertise with entrepreneurs.
Zion, who developed a nanoparticle technology for controlled drug delivery as part of his doctoral work in chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had won some Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and other NIH grants before he sought out angels experienced in the life sciences. Zion set up shop in Beverly, Mass., and this past spring Smart-Cells closed on its first round of angel financing, attracting $1 million from two ...
