Bentonville nonprofit assumes control of 412 Angels
by January 29, 2024 3:24 pm 898 views
Bentonville-based nonprofit Endeavor Heartland, an accelerator program to nurture entrepreneurs with promising startup concepts, has assumed responsibility of 412 Angels, a program established in early 2022 to boost angel investing in Northwest Arkansas and Tulsa.
According to a news release Monday (Jan. 29), the change took effect on Jan. 1. The program was initially run through a partnership between the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the Northwest Arkansas Council Foundation. It was managed by Atento Capital, a Tulsa-based venture capital fund.
Quinn Robertson, a Northwest Arkansas native with previous experience managing an angel investor syndicate in Wichita, Kan., will continue to lead the 412 Angels program within Endeavor Heartland.
“We’re really excited about this new partnership and direction of 412 Angels,” Robertson said. “The first two years of this program were really a pilot and showed that there’s an interest and appetite to financially support early-stage, growth-oriented companies in the region. This new partnership will enable us to continue this effort forward bigger and better than before.”
Endeavor Heartland is part of the Endeavor Global network, a collective of executives, founders and funders who support who it describes as “high-growth entrepreneurs in overlooked geographies around the world.”
Established in 2019, Endeavor Heartland provides entrepreneurs with global resources, including peers, mentors and capital. The 412 Angels program will leverage that network to catalyze entrepreneurs further and train a new generation of angel investors.
“I am honored to bring 412 Angels under the Endeavor Heartland umbrella,” said Canem Arkan, managing director of Endeavor Heartland. “Together, we’re poised to make real, lasting change in our region’s entrepreneurial landscape and fill some pretty big gaps in support for our founders and angel investors.”
The 412 Angels program will continue to educate and activate angel investors in the “412 Corridor” (Northwest Arkansas and Tulsa) while supporting entrepreneurs in the region.
Endeavor’s educational angel investing programming is made possible with funding from the Walton Family Foundation.