Loyola University Maryland's Simon Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship awarded a $20,000 investment from the Loyola Angel Fund to Keppel & Kismet, a Baltimore startup that creates and curates high-quality, small-batch corporate and personalized gifts.

Loyola established the Loyola Angel Fund in 2021, a $250,000 charitable fund to provide students with knowledge and experience in angel investing and to support local, underfunded entrepreneurs, particularly minority-owned, Baltimore-based businesses and women are led.

The investments follow recommendations from students in Loyola's Applied Angel Investing course, a hands-on, interdisciplinary course in which students participate in pitch meetings and analyze companies. You will learn the history of early-stage investing; the entrepreneurial landscape and social inequalities in Baltimore; Concepts and vocabulary when setting up funds and investment instruments; Risk management in the financing and decision-making process; and evaluation models.

“Students in this interdisciplinary elective were profoundly influenced by the opportunity to make real-world financial decisions that have the potential to impact the development of a startup in Baltimore, which solidified some students' interest in a career in venture capital and launching a new career path “We're giving hands-on experience to others who haven't had exposure to this notoriously isolated field,” said Wendy Bolger, founding director of the Simon Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. “We hope that what students learned in the course can help transform the role of investors in the future and ultimately change who receives investment in this country.”

The Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore offers an internationally recognized Jesuit business education. Known for its scholarship, ethical leadership, and tradition of excellence, the Sellinger School offers a broad range of in-demand majors, including eight undergraduate majors and 11 undergraduate minors, as well as full-time, part-time, and fully online MBA and Master of Arts programs Accounting programs.