Charleston-based Navigational Sciences raises funds from Blue Ridge Angels

Asheville, NC and Charleston, SC — AdvantageWest North Carolina today announced that entrepreneurial venture Navigational Sciences received two financial investments from local angel investors following a presentation to the Blue Ridge Angel Investors Network. AdvantageWest, a regional public/private economic development partnership, operates the Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council and Blue Ridge Angel Investors Network, which work together to put qualified entrepreneurial businesses in front of local angel investors at quarterly investment meetings. Navigational Sciences, a Charleston, S.C.-based marine data, GIS, satellite imaging and mapping company, presented to a gathering of angel investors at a BRAIN meeting in Asheville on March 18, 2003. Businesses from outside of western North Carolina are permitted to present business plans if they are considering western North Carolina as a possible expansion or relocation.

Local business and government leaders alike heralded the investments as indications the networking and nurturing groups for entrepreneurs and angel investors hold promise for helping to rebuild western North Carolina’s economy and creating quality homegrown jobs.

“This is an exciting development for our entrepreneurial initiative at AdvantageWest,” said Dale Carroll, President & CEO of AdvantageWest. “I’d like to thank our board champion for this initiative, David Reeves of the Capital Corporation in Hendersonville, and local entrepreneur Bill Ward of BUILDERadius for their hard work in laying the groundwork for today’s announcement. Hopefully this is the first of many for western North Carolina.”

Gene Byrd, Existing Industry Services Manager for the North Carolina Department of Commerce, which provides funding for BREC in conjunction with the Appalachian Regional Commission and AdvantageWest, said the group’s early progress proves that the initiative is on the right track. “What we see here is an innovative approach to growing the economy in western North Carolina, and it’s working. I hope that the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s partnership with ARC and AdvantageWest in this initiative will become a seed that will grow many quality jobs for western North Carolina. Working together with a local community of investors and entrepreneurs, we’ll achieve great things even in the face of a sluggish global economy.”

Jim Roberts, Executive Director of the BREC and BRAIN for AdvantageWest, said, “This is proof of concept of the business models for the BREC and BRAIN, and shows that we have an innovative and viable new engine for economic development in western North Carolina. Ultimately, our goal is to support existing entrepreneurs and inspire the formation of new companies. To create new companies, the entrepreneurs need awareness of the opportunities within the local investor base. We hope this announcement will entice more local entrepreneurs to get involved and engaged in the entrepreneurial network.”

The next BRAIN meeting will take place on June 17, and the deadline for business plan submissions was May 20. BRAIN will host the first annual “Carolina Connect” western North Carolina entrepreneurship/venture capital conference on September 4, 2003 at the Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa. The next BREC entrepreneur’s meeting will be July 11th with the CEO of Red Hat, Matthew Szulik, as the keynote speaker.

For more information about BREC and BRAIN, contact Jim Roberts at: [email protected] or 828-273-9862 or visit www.advantagewest.com.

For further info contact:
Mark Owen, 828-687-7234