Women's Capital Connection and Mid-America Angels Celebrate Exit of Portfolio Company EyeVerify (Press Release)

September 14, 2016- Women's Capital Connection (WCC) investment network company EyeVerify closed a nine-figure deal with Ant Financial, the payments affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, Ltd. on Monday. This is Ant Financial's first U.S. acquisition.

WCC members, along with partners at Mid-America Angels (MAA), first invested in EyeVerify’s 2012, $1.5 million seed round. The group also participated in subsequent Seed, Series A and bridge loan rounds, totaling $2.5 million, $6 million and $3.5 million, respectively. In total, 46 MAA and WCC members injected over $2 million of private capital to help the company refine its prototype, achieve traction and scale business operations over the years. 

MAA’s history with key EyeVerify staff extends even further back than the company’s 2012 seed round. MAA made an investment in EyeVerify CEO Toby Rush’s previous venture, Rush Tracking Systems in 2007. Founded in 2003, Rush Tracking Systems opened an early office in the Enterprise Center of Johnson County (a local non-profit organization which operates MAA) nearly fifteen years ago. The RFID tracking technology company was acquired by Pharos Capital in 2009 for an undisclosed sum. That exit was the first liquidity event for the MAA portfolio.

In 2014, EyeVerify was nominated by MAA for the Angel Capital Association’s (ACA) Luis Villalobos Award, which honors the most innovative company recently financed by ACA member angel groups each year. EyeVerify won and Rush accepted that award along with MAA’s Managing Director, Rick Vaughn.