Acorn Innovestments, a Durham investing firm that focuses on providing seed capital to startups, has launched a $7.5 million fundraising effort for its latest fund.

To date, Acorn has raised $2.5 million for the fund, according to securities filings. In explaining the latest fund, Acorn compares nurturing companies to the growth of trees in a forest.

“We are now raising money for the White Oak Innovestment Fund,” the firm says on its website. “The idea being that a tree alone in a meadow is exposed and at great risk, but trees that work together help their partners survive, thereby enhancing their chances of growing to maturity.”

The White Oak Innovestment fundraiser opened on Jan. 10 and so far, 10 investors have committed money to the fund, securities filings show.

On its site, Acorn outlines three objectives for the fund:

  • “Develop strong Strategic Partnerships with established industrial entities.
  • “Address the business development needs of our strategic partners by Angel Investing in startups with shared synergies or adjacencies.
  • “Leverage the startups’ growth into new Industrial Real Estate investment opportunities for the fund’s limited partners on a per project first-right-of-refusal investment basis.”

Acorn is led by founding partner Michael Noel.

The firm’s investments have supported Triangle startups such as bioMason and PlotWatt. Acorn says two of the firm’s original investments, GreenSky and School House, are currently being exited or divested. Ownership of the two remaining companies, PlotWatt and Sustainable Industrial Solutions, will be transferred to the White Oak Innovestments Fund.

Its strategy focuses on three areas:

  • “Manufacturing is what we know. Acorn started as a family office for a family with a rich manufacturing background. The strategic guidance available through the family and their network is invaluable for a startup that has a manufacturing component.
  • “The family’s manufacturing experience has primarily been in plastics. Our focus on advanced materials is based in our belief that today’s advanced materials are yesterday’s plastics; such discoveries will bring the world impactful change.
  • “Acorn believes that environmental technology is in the infancy stage of what will become a global magatrend. No longer can business be conducted without regard for the environment and those that find the most efficient ways of conducting sustainable business will be big winners in the years to come.”

Michael Noel’s Background

Noel’s biography from the firm’s website:

“Michael Noël is the founding partner of Acorn Innovestments, LLC., a small angel investment firm that focuses on providing seed capital for startups in advanced materials, manufacturing, and environmental technology… as well as any other area in which Michael feels he can be of strategic value add. In addition, Michael is a founder of Sustainable Industrial Solutions, LLC (SIS) a sustainability consultancy and implementer that helps small to mid-sized manufacturers realize increased cash flows from savings while attaining their holistic sustainability goals with, in large part, a paid-from-savings model.

“Michael serves on the board of Noël Group, PlotWatt, bioMASON, and Leadership Triangle. Before getting his MBA at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Michael was a global project manager in business development for Nomacorc, LLC, the market leader in synthetic wine closures.In this job, he lived in China to build Nomacorc’s Chinese operations followed by a move to Austria to manage the ownership transition when Nomacorc purchased an Austrian competitor. Prior to this, Michael built his experience in construction, olive oil and wine, and graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from North Carolina State University.”