Empire Angels

Empire Angels uses a hybrid model. The firm operates funds that invest based on a majority vote of the membership, while also maintaining a direct-investment network where individual members can write checks into companies they choose. This allows the group to combine disciplined group underwriting with the flexibility and passion of personal angel investing, with the goal of writing larger cumulative checks into portfolio companies.

The firm describes its membership as a diverse group of Millennial professionals. The group is curated for trust and cooperation, with every member expected to support the portfolio regardless of their personal investment in a given company. Membership is selective, but the firm has not publicly disclosed the exact number of members or specific professional backgrounds.

The firm's website indicates a focus on early-stage ventures, explicitly tagging seed and startup rounds. Its portfolio supports this, listing companies at the point of product launch or initial scaling, such as AI-powered classifieds app Popsy, micromobility platform Superpedestrian, and health-tech patch developer Kenzen.

While headquartered in New York, Empire Angels has a London Chapter and explicitly describes itself as global. The portfolio reflects this with investments in U.S.-based companies like Socure and The Infatuation, as well as international bets such as Zoomcar in India. The dual-city presence is designed to give members and portfolio companies transatlantic deal flow.

The firm states that its members act as vocal, active users of portfolio products and provide operational support. This support includes following on in subsequent rounds, facilitating introductions to other investors and potential customers, and assisting with M&A processes. The model is built on the premise that the membership often represents the target demographic for the consumer and enterprise technologies it backs.

Empire Angels operates as both. It is organized as an asset manager that runs pooled investment funds, but it simultaneously maintains a direct-investment network. This differentiates it from a pure venture capital firm, as members retain the autonomy to invest independently, and from a standard angel group, as it also aggregates capital for majority-rule fund decisions.

The firm has not published a list of excluded sectors. However, its portfolio and stated focus on supporting young entrepreneurs and Millennial consumers skews toward digital-native companies in enterprise software, consumer apps, mobility, and health tech. There is no disclosed interest in traditional heavy industry, life sciences beyond digital health, or financial infrastructure outside of fintech applications.