SacAngels members invested in Aperia Technologies as part of a deal led by the Sierra Angels with significant participation from the Band of Angels. According to the SEC Form D, the total raise was almost $700K.

Aperia have kept a pretty low profile since their funding while the product was developed and market development was initiated. Recently, more information about the company has emerged as the company CEO, Josh Carter, was invited to speak at the Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference in Santa Barbara (take a look at the program; it has some pretty impressive speakers).

We invested Welldog about a year ago and they are now growing rapidly. See this recent press release about a A$4MM (about the same in US$) order for their services in Australia. Welldog provide data service to the coal mining and coalbed methane discovery industry.

We also invested in Cloud Cruiser almost two years ago and they continue to gain significant recognition in the Cloud computing space — they provide cloud cost intelligence solutions. They were recently selected “As One of 20 Coolest Cloud Software Vendors”. They join the likes of industry heavyweights Google, Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce, Intuit, and SAP in that top 20 list. See the press release.

WellDog is a privately held company focused on using innovative technologies to improve exploration and production of oil, gas and alternative energy resources. They are headquartered in Laramie, Wyoming, with a subsidiary in Brisbane, Australia.

Emerging Asian economies need energy and Asian energy exporters are struggling to meet demand. Coal based resources, including gas, are contributing but they need new technologies to meet demand responsibly and quickly, exactly the niche WellDog has found with its exploration services.

Welldog Raman Tool Going Downhole

We were investors in portfolio company, Patientsafe Solutions, in 2004. They were just ranked #18 in the Wall Street Journal’s second annual Next Big Thing list of the 50 U.S. venture capital backed companies with the greatest promise to succeed. These are start-ups with potential for technological breakthroughs in health care, mobile communications and business software. To be eligible for consideration, companies must have received an venture capital / equity round of financing in the past three years and be valued at less than $1 billion, as the aim is to identify lesser-known contenders.

Members of our group participated in the Cloud Cruiser Series A Venture Capital round led by Wavepoint Ventures. Wavepoint is a Corporate member of the Sacramento Angels.

Cloud Cruiser’s is currently in stealth mode and is developing unique solutions to address the growing pain of both cloud service providers and enterprises that are implementing virtualization and cloud computing infrastructure. The company has its origins locally in Roseville.

Take a look at the full press release.