The nonprofit Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL), in Newark, New Jersey, has acquired the for-profit Pipeline Angels network headquartered in Houston.
IFEL will maintain Pipeline Angels as a wholly owned for-profit public benefit subsidiary, according to a spokesperson. Officials declined to disclose financial terms of the transaction. Such data would be disclosed as material on the organization’s next federal Form 990.
IFEL, with a mission to promote economic wealth-building for people from historically excluded communities, has helped small business startups nationwide for more than 20 years, providing resources from its volunteer network of more than 1,000 professionals. Its most recent initiative to promote investment in Black-owned businesses has helped more than 250 startups get off the ground following the racial justice protests of 2020, according to the transaction’s announcement.
Pipeline Angels is a for-profit angel investing network of women founded by Natalia Oberti Noguera in 2011. The business model includes a focus on “increasing investor diversity” and “increasing funding for women (transgender and cisgender), nonbinary, two-spirit, agender, and gender-nonconforming founders,” according to the press release.
Jill Johnson, CEO and co-founder of IFEL, said the nonprofit’s mission will benefit from leveraging the resources of Pipeline Angels’ approach to centering inclusion in its investment strategies. “By combining our programming, we create a unique platform for addressing the seemingly intractable problem of access to capital. Our objective is to not be talking about the same issues 10 years from now,” Johnson said via a statement.
Noguera has long aimed to flip the traditional focus on what small business owners can do better to one more concerned with what investors can do to be more inclusive, equitable, and supportive in addressing barriers to capital faced by historically excluded populations. IFEL’s mission aligns with that philosophy, she said. “Jill’s vision for a paradigm-shifting approach will transform both the investing and entrepreneurship ecosystems for the better. I am thrilled Jill and the IFEL team will steward the Pipeline Angels community into its next chapter,” Noguera said via a statement.
Noguera will continue to serve in a consulting capacity to facilitate Pipeline Angels’ integration into IFEL. “She (Noguera) is committed to ensuring that the amazing community that she brought together through Pipeline Angels remains engaged and excited about continuing to build toward the vision of changing the face of angel investing,” Johnson told The NonProfit Times.
IFEL reported net assets of approximately $985,000 on its most recently available Form 990 filing with the Internal Revenue Service. Total revenue for the year came to approximately $1.23 million with expenses totaling $770,000, leaving net income of just more thsn $460,000.
