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North Coast Ventures

Impact sector(s)

Technology + Early Stage Venture

About

Located in Cleveland, Ohio, North Coast Ventures invests in highly scalable, business-to-business, SaaS ventures focused on solving big problems where: Our investor members and network can provide domain and functional expertise to help achieve superior outcomes, and our strong relationships with regional corporations can drive added value and lead to market making reference customers.

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Notable Successes

Originally founded as an angel group in 2006, North Coast Ventures (formerly North Coast Angel Fund) focuses on early-stage technology investments and includes seven contributed capital funds. The investment entities are all for-profit, contributed capital funds. Four of these are fully invested (Seed Fund I, II, III and Acceleration Fund I). Three of the funds are partially invested (Seed IV, Acceleration II, and Syndication Fund). Each new Acceleration and Seed fund has been larger than the previous one (see facts and stats). The funds are composed of over 400+ individual member-investors, including many of the region’s leading entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and business executives, making the North Coast Ventures (NCV) network the largest Ohio-based early-stage investor community and the fifth largest in the nation. Over the past 17 years, NCV and its investors have deployed over $100M into nearly 80 Ohio-based companies. These companies employ over 2,000 people in high-quality jobs in high-growth industries with an average salary of nearly $100,000. Within this same timeframe, NCV’s portfolio companies have raised almost $1 billion. NCV has built a robust deal flow network, which is anticipated to deliver 200+ investment candidates annually. This deal flow pipeline is expected to translate into nearly 100 annual on-thesis, stage-appropriate screened opportunities. Historically, approximately 10% have advanced to Due Diligence and 3-5% have received investment. NCV is preparing to launch Acceleration Fund III and anticipates a $50 million total fund size, its largest to date. Acceleration III invests after the initial seed stage, at a point where companies have demonstrated meaningful commercial traction and have articulated a credible plan to utilize larger amounts of capital for continued growth. NCV anticipates strong performance from Acceleration Fund III and is pursuing an aggressive strategy to build a diverse and innovative portfolio, propelled by a lean, experienced management team of five full-time members. NCV has a proven track record of success with similar funds. Acceleration II made fifteen investments to date, in which investors will receive pro-rata interest. To date, Acceleration II has exited two portfolio companies, Standard Bariatrics and Proformex.

Team

The full-time team is comprised of Todd Federman, Managing Director; Daniel Luketic, Director; Ann Kirschner, CFO; Leen Ajlouni, Investment Associate; Lauren Ahmed, Operations and Community Manager; and Clay Rankin, Managing Director Emeritus.

Todd Federman, Managing Director

Todd has served as Managing Director of NCV since its founding in 2006. , and has served as either a Board Director or observer for many...

Todd has served as Managing Director of NCV since its founding in 2006. , and has served as either a Board Director or observer for many NCV companies including StreamLink Software, Vlipsy, Remesh, Navistone and ScriptDrop. Previously, he was a consultant to the brand strategy team at AOL, and a Manager at technology strategy consulting firm, DiamondCluster. Todd co-founded the One With Nature line of body care products carried in 4,000 retail locations. Todd is a member of YPO and Leadership Cleveland’s class of 2015. Todd holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Kent State University and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

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Clay Rankin, Managing Director Emeritus

Clay has served as the founder and Managing Director of NCV since 2006. Previously, he held leadership roles at Sycamore Partners, LLC...

Clay has served as the founder and Managing Director of NCV since 2006. Previously, he held leadership roles at Sycamore Partners, LLC, Bruning Paint Company, Laurel Industries, Inc., Cleveland Twist Drill Co., and XMR Laser Systems. He was also a Senior Associate with McKinsey & Co. and a Commercial Lending Officer with First National Bank of Boston. Clay holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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Daniel Luketic , Director

Daniel has served as Director of NCV since 2016. Previously, he was a consultant to the Bizdom accelerator, which supported technology...

Daniel has served as Director of NCV since 2016. Previously, he was a consultant to the Bizdom accelerator, which supported technology startups by creating connections to Dan Gilbert’s extensive ‘Family of Companies’. Daniel co-founded Risk Management Technologies, (Saas InsureTech) and YouLobby (crowdfunding platform). Daniel holds a bachelor’s degree in Management and Finance from the University of Mount Union.

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Ann Kirschner, Chief Financial Officer

Ann joined NCV in 2019 with over 30 years of experience in financial management roles. In her role, Ann is responsible for fund accounting...

Ann joined NCV in 2019 with over 30 years of experience in financial management roles. In her role, Ann is responsible for fund accounting and reporting. She handles capital calls and distributions, State loan transactions, bill pay and financial communications with investors and portfolio companies. She is a CPA and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Economics Management from Ohio Wesleyan University.

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Lauren Ahmed, Operations and Community Manager

Lauren joined NCV in February of 2023 and is responsible for engaging with the group’s 400+ member investors to better leverage the power...

Lauren joined NCV in February of 2023 and is responsible for engaging with the group’s 400+ member investors to better leverage the power of their networks, and operationalizing it to capitalize on investors’ functional, industry and startup expertise to help accelerate portfolio company success. Previously, Lauren served as a Marketing lead for Magnolia Management group. She holds a Master’s Degree in Communications from the University of North Texas, with an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts from Wake Forest University.

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