DETROIT – Four Michigan and Ontario, Canada, based angel investors have banded together to create Nouveau Angel Capital Corp., which plans to raise $18 million on the Canadian public market to invest in start-up companies in Michigan and Ontario.

This band of angels includes a member of the Great Lakes Angels, based at TechTown in Detroit, members of Toronto and London, Ontario,-based angel groups, as well as an investor associated with the University of Windsor. Nouveau has started the process of getting listed on the venture exchange of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

A big beneficiary of this innovative new investment vehicle – what experts are calling unique in United States and Canadian investment circles – will be tenants of TechTown as well as new companies formed by a TechTown-Kauffmann Foundation alliance, which hopes to fund some 400 new companies in Southeastern Michigan by 2012.

Nouveau’s potential listing comes through a Canadian investment vehicle called a capital pool company. Because rules governing CPCs require a Canadian headquarters, Nouveau will be based in the Odette School of Business at the University of Windsor.

The four principals are Rick Galdi, president of Great Lakes Angels, Mark Meldrum, director of a tech incubator at the University of Windsor, Mike Labiak, a private investor in Windsor, and Paul Massland, a member of angel groups in both London and Toronto. Together they pooled the initial $200,000 from their own resources to start the CPC.

Now Nouveau seeks to raise another $1.8 million from at least 200 investors to get to the $2 million funding threshold. After that, the CPC must make one investment, which triggers the provision to allow Nouveau to be listed on the venture exchange and then raise the remaining $18 million through the sale of public shares.

Unlike traditional angel groups, the CPC allows investors to spread out their investment – typically $25,000 a year – over a lot more companies, and to sell their shares should they want to cash out. Traditional angel deals can lock an investor in for five or 10 years before they can get their money back, or make money if the investment appreciates.

Nouveau has been in the works for about a year, since Galdi was appointed president of Great Lakes Angels in May 2008. The actual match making was done through a Canadian trade commissioner, Josy Parrotta-Marck, who introduced Galdi to Meldrum. Through Meldrum and Parrotta-Marck, Galdi then met the other Canadian investors.

For more on Great Lakes Angels, click on GLAngels.Org

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