Student angels invest in Knoda

Students from the Allen Angel Capital Education Program in Mizzou’s Trulaske College of Business announced they will close a deal with Kansas City-based technology firm Knoda. The student angels will invest $50,000 in convertible debt.

Knoda is a technology company that provides users an app-based platform to make, track, rank and archive predictions. Knoda technology scores predictions and reports each user’s successes. The aggregated predictions represent a unique form of crowd-sourced content. Knoda is available to users online through Knoda.com or as an iPhone/Android application available for download from the App Store.

The Allen Angel Capital Education Program is a cross-disciplinary, student-managed angel investment fund that allows undergraduate and graduate students of the University of Missouri to learn angel and venture capital investment strategies through the first-hand experience of investing in high-growth Missouri start-up companies.

“Our students are experiencing a truly innovative approach to angel investing,” said William (WD) Allen, Assistant Professor of Finance and Allen Angel Capital Education Program Faculty Advisor, “Though I provide oversight as their faculty advisor, the students are running the show. Because of this, our students experience a unique opportunity to decide the fate of a pitch. This program is on the cutting edge of business education.”

“The Trulaske College of Business makes it a priority to expose students to real world business situations. As students, we’re managing real funds and investing in real start-ups. This is great preparation for my career,” said Alex Wood, co-president of the Allen Angel Capital Education Program. “We chose Knoda for this investment because we really believe in what they’ve created. It’s been fun to see Kyle and James using their predictions app and interacting with the community. We’ve enjoyed watching Knoda grow as a company and we are pleased to partner with them on their continued growth.”

In 2010, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation awarded the program a portion of the Kauffman Commercialization Leaders Grant to invest in student-managed start-up companies. The Allen ACE Fund is made possible through the generosity of donors who believe that through investment, students gain knowledge as much as they give in dollars.