Central Coast companies looking for equity-backed funding now have the chance to make their case to investors through Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. 

Cal Poly’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Small Business Development Center SBDC opened its application for AngelCon 2021 on Oct. 16. AngelCon, an annual event heading into its fourth iteration, is a competition in which local companies compete for over $100,000 in equity-backed funding. 

Some of the more successful winners in recent years include De Oro Devices and Atlas Alpha, who won $220,000 and between them and received approximately $1 million in follow-up investments.

 “AngelCon has become a keystone event for the Central California business community,” said Judy Mahan, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s economic development director, said in a news release.

The annual event is propelled by a group of angel investors interested in investing in early-stage startups in exchange for ownership equity or convertible debt. 

“The outcomes have surpassed our expectations,” Mahn said in the release.”We’ve connected with close to 100 new angel investors counting this year’s fund, and provided access to more than $5 million in capital to 18 startups.”

Startup applications are open until Jan. 22, 2021 and can be submitted at https://bit.ly/angelconstartupapp. The live event will take place in June 2021.