Charlotte Angel Fund is selling $3 million in a private equity offering, according to a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The offering began at $3 million and has sold $350,000 over the last two weeks to 12 investors. It’s the group’s first filing with the SEC, and it intends the offering to last more than one year.

Of the total proceeds, $50,000 will cover administrative costs. An intended use was not detailed for the remainder of the offering.

The fund’s portfolio of six companies largely includes biotechnology and health care companies. But it also includes one augmented reality company, PRSONAS, which uses holograms and artificial intelligence to personify companies’ personas in an attempt to better relate to customers.

Gregory Brown, the fund’s administrator, signed the filing. He is a contract chief financial officer through his Charlotte company, Cardinal Finance, where he also focuses on the needs of small companies, according the company’s website.

The Charlotte Angel Fund has from 55 to 60 members, 20 of them bankers, Brown told WRAL TechWire in a recent interview.

“It’s fun to see them react. Every company we ever looked at is shockingly early for them, far from any company they would have engaged with in their professional lives. So it’s fun to expose them to that.”

Money is not in short supply in Charlotte, he added, just money for startups.

“People accumulated their wealth in businesses and ways much different than the types of businesses startups tend to pursue,” Brown said. “They’re accustomed to real estate, banking, and textiles, not software or medical tech.The most comfortable thing to do is invest in things like the ones you were successful with and at what created wealth for you.”

Part of the benefit of participating in the Fund is that its members get exposed to new ideas, he added.. “Once a month they hear entrepreneurs pitch this thing that they’re passionate about, things they never would have been involved with in their professional lives. Part of what I love about the fund and entrepreneurial scene in general is exposing people to ideas different from others in their lives. It forces you to examine your ideas.”

Brown continues to be a proponent of diversifying Charlotte’s sprawling sectors.

“The reality is that Charlotte’s economy is pretty good, so many see no need to change it,” he said in an interview with Spengler & Agans law firm. “However, the issue is that Charlotte’s economy is concentrated in certain sectors, and those sectors have in the past and will in the future see down cycles. We need economic diversity to reduce economic risk.”

He argues that part of the problem is Charlotte’s banking culture and similar institutions. They’re not entrepreneurial enough, he said. Banks don’t like risk, and that likely translates to risk-minded employees who, conversely, would fit well in a Charlotte startup scene.

His solution: “I think what we can do is focus on things like innovative business models.” He said that’s what Charlotte Angel Investors looks for as it invests.

Private companies such as Charlotte Angel Fund, which rely on a Reg D exemption, are not required to register securities offerings with the SEC, but instead they must file a Form D electronically with the SEC after they sell the securities.

Note: North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism, contributed to this report.