Wayfinder startup AG Tools recently won first place for “Best Investment Opportunity” in Next Wave Impact’s Founders of Color Showcase 2020.
Next Wave Impact is an early-stage micro-venture fund that is focused on driving social impact, diversity and inclusion by providing early-stage startups pre-seed to Series A funding.
“Receiving this award truly makes the team and myself proud that we have narrowed down the understanding of what we are providing,” said Martha Montoya, AG Tools CEO. “When going to investors, we talk about many issues as entrepreneurs, the process of learning how to tell investors what we provide to our customers has grown dramatically.”
Less than five percent of venture capital in the U.S. goes to companies with female, black and Latino CEOs, according to Next Wave Impact, who is aiming to increase that figure. The Founders of Color Showcase virtual event featured 10 finalists, including AG Tools, who pitched their companies to the investor audience.
“This event improves self-esteem across the team and therefore confidence to move forward in areas we knew we wanted,” said Montoya. “We know now that the business model is profitable and is also impacting society.”
AG Tools is a platform that supplies real-time data analytics, reports and forecasts to optimize the food and agricultural supply chain. The startup also recently won first place and a $200,000 investment in the San Diego Angel Conference and was accepted into the Women in Cloud Microsoft Accelerator.
With their award, AG Tools will finish their seed round funding by early June and then focus on delivering on projections to investors.
Learn more about AG Tools.
*Pictured is Martha Montoya, co-founder and CEO of AG Tools.
Main Image: Julie Kennedy, UCI Beall Applied Innovation