The “Investor the Year” Award, Presented by the Austin Venture Association
The Austin Chamber of Commerce and South by Southwest gathered the local innovation community to honor startups and investors on August 3rd, 2022. The Austin Venture Association kicked off a new collaboration with Roland Pena, the SVP of Global Tech & Innovation and his team on a new partnership, by presenting their new awards category for startup investors, the “Investor of the Year”. Austin Chamber marked this big stamp in time, by acknowledging investors in two categories, the Venture Capital Investor of the Year, and the Angel Investor of the Year, both of which were presented by Austin Venture Association’s cofounder and Executive Director, CS Freeland.
Finalists didn’t just achieve success in their investments, demonstrate a focus on local startups (many of which were included on the A-List), and mentor and support their portfolio. They also demonstrated thoughtful approaches in creating opportunities for under-represented founders and also gave back to the local community.
Finalists for the “Investor of the Year” Awards:
ATX Venture Partners
Live Oak Venture Partners
Lontra Ventures
Midnight Venture Partners
Moonshots Capital
Angel Investor of the Year
The “Angel Investor of the Year” award went to Andrea Kalmans, from Lontra Ventures. She has received a lot of high praise from people she’s work with. This was said about her, “I am continually impressed with her. She’s a very hands-on investor who is incredibly smart, very optimistic, and balanced with the right amount of transparent pragmatism.” View her LinkedIn post and acceptance speech here.
Venture Capital Investor of the Year
Afterward, the “Venture Capital Investor of the Year” award was given to LiveOak Venture Partners. This local early-stage venture capital firm has invested nearly 500 million dollars in Texas-based companies and successfully created more than 5 billion dollars of enterprise value. Over its 20-year tenure, the firm developed a philosophy that they consider a Bill of Rights – a set of aspirational goals intended to guide their interactions with entrepreneurs. Their commitment to the local community is also evident in their Gives Program which has contributed to a dozen local non-profits in the last three years. View their LinkedIn post here.
Read about the Austin Chamber of Commerce and their past A-List Awards on their website.
Click the images below to view more media and posts from Austin Venture Association Board Members and member of the startup/venture community below.
