Top 5 Hospitality Angel Investors in Oceania (October 2023)

Michael D. Sharkey, President, MB Business Capital, is responsible for the bank's asset based lending group. With nearly 40 years of experience in financial services, he oversees a nationwide market with regional offices in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Hartford, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City,San Francisco, and Scottsdale.From July 2008 until the merger with MB in 2014, Sharkey was president of Cole Taylor Business Capital and executive vice president, asset based lending.Prior to that, he was president and CEO of LaSalle Business Credit, where he helped build the group into the fifth largest asset based lending company in the United States. During his tenure at LaSalle, he also served as executive vice president for LaSalle Bank and ABN Amro. Sharkey began his career in financial services with GE Capital as a field examiner and loan officer, and moved on to Manufacturers Hanover Commercial Corporation where he served as senior loan officer. From there, he joined and within four years became president of StanChart Business Credit, which was ultimately acquired by LaSalle Bank.Sharkey is a permanent member of the Executive Committee of the Commercial Finance Association, as well as past president and chairman of that organization. He is also past president of the American Brain Tumor Association.Sharkey is a graduate of Rutgers University and J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Investment focus

Industry: Music, Events, Hospitality
Stage:Seed, Debt Financing
Geography: Australia, United States

Investor stats

Total investments: 2
Lead/follow: 50% lead, 50% follow

Portfolio highlights

Logic PD — Beacon EmbeddedWorks System On Modules (SOMs) deliver unwavering performance. Our SOMs are compact, secure, fully customizable and built to last.
Muso — Muso is a live-entertainment start-up born in Melbourne and now operating Australia-wide. We help venues create better live entertainment experiences and help artists find more gigs to create more revenue opportunities. We leverage technology to make things more efficient, fair and transparent to ultimately make live music more accessible to morepeople. Eventually we hope that every venue will be a live music venue but until then we’ll work on changing one at a time.

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Ruslan Kogan is a serial entrepreneur, having created and run many successful businesses. He is one of the pioneers of online retail in Australia, and his Internet ventures have expanded to include a global footprint. His companies have operations in Australia, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, with much more international expansion planned. Histremendous success made him Australia's wealthiest self-made person under the age of 30. The technology manufacturer and online retailer he created, Kogan.com, has gone on to become the biggest online retailer in Australia, valued at over $400 million.Ruslan Kogan is a regular guest contributor to TechCrunch, Forbes, Gizmodo, and other outlets.

Investment focus

Industry: Apps, SaaS, FinTech
Stage:Seed, Series A
Geography: Australia, New Zealand

Investor stats

Total investments: 5
Round size: Seed $514k–$3.5M; Series A $3.5M–$57M
Lead/follow: 40% lead, 60% follow

Portfolio highlights

Mr Yum — Create a magical customer experience while growing your sales, data & efficiency.
ArchiPro — Browse projects, find products, connect with professionals and learn about building, all in one place. Find everything you need to build your dream right here.
Flux — Flux helps you win at money. Save money and win cash prizes. Get exclusive content. Make your credit score healthier. All free.

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Chadd Ciccarelli

Investment focus

Industry: Software, Information Technology, Food and Beverage
Stage:Seed, Series A, Series B
Geography: Australia, United States

Investor stats

Total investments: 12
Round size: Seed $605k–$1.5M
Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

Triggr — SaaS Platform, Real-Time Sales Notifications and Top Quality Contact Data to Help Your Sales Team Close More Deals.
Adatree — Adatree helps organisations unleash the potential of Open Banking and the CDR through turnkey Data Recipient and Data Holder solutions.
GGWP Academy — The best creators of tomorrow have to be well versed in analytics, skilled at branding and entertaining.

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Marat is a serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in the financial industry and early stage investor. He is the founder of several successful companies, including a consumer finance bank, few e-commerce companies and investment fund. He serves on the board of his several portfolio companies (Bioloka, Wow Cube, F3 and RelesticaHolding), utilizing his knowledge and expertise in Blockchain industry which he joined to in 2013 as a partner in Bitfury Group. In both as a fund and as an angel investor, Marat have invested in 30+ fin tech, e-commerce, blockchain technology, educational, healthcare and gaming companies, providing business expertise and financial & advisory support to founders. Marat has a master's degree in finance & business management and a bachelor's degree in law. In his free time, Marat likes surfing and skiing!

Investment focus

Industry: Software, Education, Cryptocurrency
Stage:Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
Geography: United States, Canada, Latvia

Investor stats

Total investments: 20
Round size: Seed $1.9M–$3.9M; Pre-Seed $550k–$700k
Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

Intropia — Find Web3 jobs and other opportunities, capitalize your network, and hire the best talent.
Starly.io — Launchpad and marketplace for your gamified NFT collections
EWA Learn — Start learning English, French and Spanish with EWA: conversational vocabulary, interactive exercises, modern examples and fun tasks are waiting for you!

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