CommonWealth Angels

What CommonWealth Angels does

CommonWealth Angels (CWA) is a private capital investment organization and angel investor group headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, with a secondary office in Blacksburg. It operates as the dedicated capital arm of the Roanoke Blacksburg Innovation Alliance (RBIA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (Tax ID 46-2975294), and was founded by tech entrepreneurs Kevin Bloomfield and Russ Ellis. CWA connects regional entrepreneurs with a curated pool of certified angel investors, providing early-stage, well-vetted investment opportunities across Southwest Virginia and the broader Commonwealth.

CWA conducts pre-seed and seed rounds, deploying an average of approximately $200,000 per deal. The organization is technology and sector agnostic, with a stated bias toward Southwest Virginia startups, and explicitly does not lead rounds or write term sheets — positioning itself as a co-investor alongside venture capital funds and other angel groups. Its disclosed portfolio comprises seven companies spanning life sciences/pharma (Chorda Pharma, Acomhal Research, CytoRecovery), consumer/enterprise technology (Ticket Spicket, Rendyr, Veracity), and logistics technology (Tiny Cargo Company). Prospective portfolio companies must demonstrate market, product, or regulatory traction along with scalability and a reasonable path to exit.

CWA's go-to-market is community-led: deal sourcing relies on direct applications via an Airtable form, regional pitch events, and referrals from the RBIA ecosystem (which includes the RAMP startup growth program and RBTC regional collaboration network). The organization monetizes through capital appreciation on equity stakes rather than fees or product revenue, offering mentorship and education to both entrepreneurs and prospective angel investors as part of its community value proposition.

Name

CommonWealth Angels

Legal name

Roanoke Blacksburg Innovation Alliance

Website

https://cwangels.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Short description

CommonWealth Angels is a Roanoke, Virginia-based angel investment network operating under the RBIA nonprofit, connecting regional entrepreneurs with certified angel investors through pre-seed and seed rounds averaging $200,000 per deal.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Angel Investment Network

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940), All Other Financial Investment Activities (52399)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

Micro-VC & Angel Funds (FSANAAAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

Private Capital Introducers (PE/VC/Private Credit) (FSAEAMAE)

Keywords

• Angel investor network
• Early-stage investment
• Pre-seed funding
• Seed stage capital
• Venture co-investment

Headquarters

HQ city

Virginia

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Angel Investment Returns: CommonWealth Angels generates returns through equity investments in early-stage startups. The organization invests $200,000 per deal on average in pre-seed and seed rounds, seeking capital appreciation through portfolio company growth and eventual exits.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

CommonWealth Angels is a private angel investment organization that connects regional entrepreneurs in Southwest Virginia with a growing pool of certified angel investors. It deploys early-stage capital averaging $200,000 per deal in pre-seed and seed rounds into technology and life science startups, operating as a co-investor alongside venture capital funds and other angel organizations rather than leading rounds or writing term sheets.

Product overview

Common Wealth Angels is a private capital investment organization that operates as a single unified offering — an angel investment network connecting regional entrepreneurs with certified investors. The organization provides a financial launching pad to high-growth potential technology and life science companies, focusing on pre-seed and seed rounds with an average investment of $200,000 per deal. The company is sector agnostic and does not lead rounds or write term sheets, requiring prospective companies to have market, product, and/or regulatory traction along with scalability and a reasonable path to exit.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Angel Investment Services

Named customers7 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators2 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Emerging players

• Republic: Online investment platform offering retail and angel investors access to vetted startup and pre-seed deals. Comparable in democratizing access to early-stage investment opportunities, but with a national fintech-platform model.
• MicroVentures: Micro-VC and angel investing platform offering curated early-stage deal access. Comparable to CWA in check size and pre-seed/seed focus, but operates as a national online platform.

Broad incumbents

• SeedInvest: Equity crowdfunding and angel investing platform enabling startups to raise capital from a large investor base. Competes for early-stage deal flow that CWA targets, though with a national digital footprint.
• Techstars: Global accelerator and early-stage investor combining mentorship with seed capital. Overlaps with CWA's ecosystem-driven, mentorship-plus-capital value proposition, though at vastly greater scale and brand recognition.
• Gust: Global platform supporting angel investor networks with deal management and syndication tools. Overlaps with CWA's role as an organized angel network, but at a global software-platform scale.
• AngelList: Online platform for angel investments, syndicates, and rolling funds. A much broader incumbent that competes for angel capital allocation and syndication deals at a national scale.

Direct peers

• Tidewater Angel Network: Virginia-based regional angel network providing early-stage capital and mentorship. Operates with a similar regional-focus, group-of-angel-investors structure as CWA.
• Charlottesville Angel Network: Central Virginia angel network investing in early-stage startups alongside co-investors. Closely mirrors CWA's sector-agnostic, co-investor thesis and average check size in seed-stage deals.
• 757 Angels: Hampton Roads, Virginia-based angel investor network funding early-stage regional companies. Directly comparable to CommonWealth Angels in structure, deal size, and regional-angel-network model within the same state.

Regional players

• Coastal Virginia Angel Investors: Virginia-based regional angel group investing across sectors. Comparable regional angel model, though serving the Coastal Virginia geography rather than Southwest Virginia.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CommonWealth Angels