NEW YORK, NY — (Marketwired) — 08/21/13 — , an innovative digital check payment platform, and Angel Capital Group (ACG), a national Angel investors- network with over 200 members in 6 chapter locations, today announced that they will extend Zipmark-s platform to ACG investors through a proprietary investment management platform designed by ACG called Venture360. Zipmark-s fully integrated, guaranteed digital check payment option replaces traditional funds delivery methods such as wire transfer or certified checks for accredited investors participating in the Angel Capital Group. Zipmark-s transaction fee is only 1% with a $5 cap.
Founded by Rachael Qualls, the Angel Capital Group offers angel investors access to great deals sourced throughout the country for an investment commitment as small as $10,000 a year. “We are making Angel investing accessible to more investors by enabling them to create a portfolio for as little at $10,000 and access some of the most promising companies across the country regardless of where the investor is located,” explains Qualls.
To facilitate investments across many boarders, earlier this year ACG launched Venture360, a portfolio management system for investors and Angel groups that aims to simplify the process of bringing together the right people at all stages to close deals, update information, send documentation for electronic signature and follow investments post-funding. Before Venture360 and the introduction of Zipmark, Angel investors were required to send a paper check or use alternative, expensive payment platforms to send their money. Not only are paper checks containing high value amounts dangerous, but also cause severe lag time from when the check is deposited to when the funds are actually available, and for start-ups who need cash now, that is a serious issue. Unlike the ACH network that is used as the major clearinghouse for bank deposits and payments, Zipmark built a proprietary hybrid payment platform and risk management platform that deposits guaranteed funds into a biller-s operating account on the next business day. Traditional ACH transactions can take as long as ten business days to deposit funds. Utilizing Zipmark, angels can quickly and inexpensively send funds for the startups they want to invest in.
In just a couple of months, over 30 investment groups across the country are using Venture360 to manage their investments. Qualls added, “Our goal in designing Venture360 was to get to a -3-click close.- The level of efficiency we wanted reach meant that an investor would only need to click three things through our software to complete an investment: 1) make an investment commitment, 2) electronically sign closing documents, and 3) transfer funds. The hold-up in reaching our goal for the last year had been integration of a payment processing system. What others had to offer either didn-t integrate with our technology to make a seamless deal closing or they were too expensive and slow when moving large amounts of money (like credit card processing or ACH). Zipmark was the answer to our problem. The integration was quick and seamless to our users, they could move money overnight, and we were only charged a maximum of $5 a transaction.”
“Rachel Qualls and the Venture360 team have brought transparency and efficiency to early stage fundraising,” said Jay Bhattacharya, CEO and co-founder of Zipmark. “Venture360 was able to solve the complex issues of identifying and vetting investment opportunities and executing legal documents. However, the options available for the final, most mechanical step — actually transferring funds — were outdated and slow. We-re quite pleased that they chose to integrate the Zipmark-s API to modernize the final step in the Venture 360 platform.”
Other online and mobile payment platforms either use credit cards or indirect holding accounts to move money in addition to having to log into their service every time you want to process a payment. Online payment features offered by banks and credit unions frequently take several days to pay a bill because a paper check is oftentimes sent via U.S. mail service or traditional ACH is used. These processes add complexity and “wait” time. Zipmark replaces these hurdles by literally connecting the payer and payee-s accounts so money can be received and available the next business day. Paying with a digital check using Zipmark is now as simple as clicking a button, but without all the delays associated with delivery and settlement.
Venture360 is an investment management platform for investor groups of all sizes. Venture360 provides complete, customizable support for all stages of deal flow and work processes, starting with entrepreneur applications and ending with cloud-based deal closing and funds transfers. The system also monitors deal performance with robust portfolio tracking features. Venture360 even captures and aggregates deal characteristics and future performance to provide benchmarking for optimized deal screening. Organizations that run on the Venture360 platform can automate and digitize 70% or more of their existing deal flow and work processes. For more information, please visit .
Zipmark-s goal is to remove barriers between businesses and their money by bringing the checkbook into the 21st century: reducing the amount of time and money it takes to make a check payment, eliminating the possibility for bounced checks and taking all risk out of the equation for payer and payee alike. Zipmark was launched in 2010 by Jay Bhattacharya and Jake Howerton, and is based in New York City. Zipmark-s investors are Village Ventures, Contour Venture Partners, NYC Seed, High Peaks Venture Capital, Scout Ventures and the New York City Investment Fund.
Disclaimer: Zipmark is a registered trademark of Zipmark, Inc. All other copyrights and trademarks within the release are property of the respective brands.
Zipmark press contact:
David Splivalo
703.798.2395
Angel Capital Group press contact:
Josh Roberts
615.969.2320
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