The Luis Villalobos Award

Honoring innovative companies funded by ACA members

The Luis Villalobos Award recognizes the most ingenious and innovative ideas recently financed by members of the Angel Capital Association.
All applications are due by 5:00p Central on Friday, January 31, 2025!

Two category winners will be selected to attend the ACA Summit and honored live and throughout the event. The award is presented to the winning CEOs during the annual awards ceremony at the 2025 ACA Summit (April 15-17, 2025). Companies in all investment sectors are invited to participate and will be considered for one of two Category Winner opportunities. The categories are:

- Technology, Services, & Consumer: (Hardware & Software, Social Media, Web 2.0., Fintech, AgTech, etc.)

- Life Sciences (Pharma, Med devices, HealthCare IT, Digital or Mobile Health, etc.)

This award honors Luis Villalobos, who founded the Tech Coast Angels, one of the largest and most respected angel organizations in the world, in 1997. Companies funded by Tech Coast Angels have raised more than $1 billion to date. He was a true “leading light” in the angel field, making 57 personal investments, educating numerous angels, and particularly in educating and mentoring entrepreneurs before he passed away in 2009. He was a sought-after expert and speaker about sophisticated angel investment. Luis appreciated ingenuity and entrepreneurial thinking in every aspect of life, and always looked to invest in and mentor the most innovative companies.

Award winners have a strong track record of innovation and growth.

2025 Luis Villalobos Award Program

Two winning companies are selected and invited to attend the ACA Summit. Both companies will be honored and the award will be presented at a special ceremony on during the ACA Summit – April 15-17, 2025.

Benefits to 2025 Winning Companies:

- Comped (1) registration to the full 2024 ACA Summit (April 15-17, 2025).

- Introduction of the company and your innovation to the full ACA 2025 in-person Summit audience on April 16, 2025.

- Access to an exhibit space throughout the event to facilitate connections & meetings with the investor attendees.

PR for the company & nominating investor/s heralding the innovation and selection as a 2025 Luis Villalobos Award Winner.

Participation Costs:

There are no costs to participate in this awards program.
As noted above each Category winner is provided a complementary registration to attend the event, two nights at the venue hotel, and up to $500 in travel stipend.

Nomination Details

The award is open to companies that have received funding from an ACA member / angel group between 2021 and 2025 and that are in operation when the application is submitted. The Villalobos Award honors world-changing innovation in a startup company. We recognize that that kind of innovation can occur at any stage of a company’s life, so companies of all stages are welcome to apply. However, we also expect that the applying companies will have proven that their innovation has been incorporated into products with some degree of customer adoption. We give extra consideration to early revenue and/or customers. Companies in their later rounds of equity financing are probably not appropriate for this award.

Companies in all investment sectors are invited to participate and will be considered for one of two Category Winner opportunities. The categories are:

- Technology, Services, & Consumer: (Hardware & Software, Social Media, Web 2.0., Fintech, AgTech, etc.)

- Life Sciences (Pharma, Med devices, HealthCare IT, Digital or Mobile Health, etc.)

Both the ACA member / group and company complete a short nomination form and is complete when both are received to Sarah Dickey via the nomination forms below or directly.

Please provide:

1) ACA Luis Villalobos Award – Angel Nomination

AND

2) ACA Luis Villalobos Award – Company Application

Please reach out to Sarah Dickey for the 2024 forms if you prefer an offline version.

2024 Winners

ACA Honors Angel-Financed Innovation with the Prestigious Luis Villalobos Award

Columbus, OH (May 20, 2024) – Recognizing the most ingenious and innovative companies recently financed by members of the Angel Capital Association, the prestigious Luis Villalobos Award was given on May 13, 2024, to two outstanding portfolio companies. Receiving the award were Ready. Set. Food!, an early allergen introduction system taking the Tech Category, and Deep Blue, a company transforming soft tissue surgery by developing next generation surgical devices to prevent soft tissue surgery failure in the Life Sciences Category.

“As investors, we were familiar with the issues involved with traditional mesh products. Despite initial skepticism, the knowledge of the team and understanding of how to tackle a complicated medical issue led us to participate in one of Deep Blue’s earliest financing rounds, and then again in subsequent rounds. We are very proud that they are getting the recognition for their achievements and the enhanced patient care their products can provide,” said Mark Friedman, co-founder of RTP Capital Associates and RTP Angel Fund.

The two category-winning companies were honored live during the annual awards ceremony at ACA’s 2024 Summit of Angel Investing, the leading annual event for angel investors.

Ready. Set. Food!, supported by the TCA Venture Group’s LA chapter, have been engaged with this angel investing group for more than five years.

“We first invested in RSF not only because it checked the boxes for the important financial metrics, a dynamic management team, an innovative, proprietary product with strong intellectual property, and a large and growing global market opportunity, but also because its products would improve and potentially save lives.

When we first invested, RSF was effectively a one product company with a mission to protect babies from developing peanut, egg & milk allergies. Since then we’ve seen the company add additional products to grow with their consumers, with the introduction of various toddler snacks even adults love! Distribution has grown from online to also include major retailers as well as new moms who are Medicaid recipients,” said Ron Silverton, Executive Committee Member of the TCA Venture Group.

2024 ACA Luis Villalobos Award Life Sciences Winner: Deep Blue

Deep Blue is transforming soft tissue surgery by developing next generation surgical devices to prevent soft tissue surgery failure. In the USA each year, 11% of 5M abdominal surgical site closings go on to become bulges called hernias and these need to be repaired. Further, ~611K abdominal hernia repairs suffer from a 32% long-term failure rate with a $10B annual cost. This failure in soft tissue surgery due to suture pull-through of tissue or mesh “cheesewiring” is unacceptably common, and is directly related to a lack of fast, reliable reinforcement that reduces tissue stress. This soft tissue surgery platform utilizes mesh extension sutures that distribute and reduce tension at the surgical site to reduce cheesewiring, reduce pain, and provide a quick, convenient surgical approach.

This award represents one of the many ways the ACA and its members fuel the success of innovative start-ups and honors Luis Villalobos, founder of TCA Venture Group (formerly Tech Coast Angels).

2024 ACA Luis Villalobos Award Technology Winner: Ready. Set. Food4

Ready. Set. Food! is an allergen introduction system for babies. Their mission is to help babies have healthier futures, free from the limits of food allergies. They follow the latest USDA guidelines on food allergen introduction, and educate parents on the best way to achieve them in three guided stages. These stages offer exposure to peanut, egg, milk, cashew, almond, walnut, sesame, soy and wheat in foods.