Chattanooga Investors Launch Angel Fund

CHATTANOOGA, TN (March 9, 2011) - A group of Chattanooga business leaders have launched a formalized angel capital fund aimed at encouraging local entrepreneurship and fueling economic growth. The Chattanooga Renaissance Fund (CRF) will provide entrepreneurs with access to capital investment as well as mentorship from the group's advisory board and limited partners. The Fund's limited partners represent a diverse group of business executives from a variety of sectors that are committed to helping entrepreneurs grow their business.

"As Chattanooga continues to build a reputation as a center of major economic activity in the South, it.s important that there is a place locally for early stage entrepreneurs to access capital and have the ability to interface with experienced business mentors", said Charlie Brock, a partner at FourBridges Capital Advisors and one of CRF.s general partners.

CRF was inspired by both Chattanooga's deep roots in entrepreneurism and the unique opportunity to leverage the areas positive momentum from recent local investments by several multinational corporations.

"The Chattanooga area is steeped in the tradition of entrepreneurs who have been successful and then given back to the community", said David Belitz, a CRF general partner and CFO of Lupton Co. "In many ways the Renaissance Fund is focused on re-establishing the entrepreneurial community that will carry forward the area.s legacy of entrepreneurism which will continue the growth and development of our City."

The angel capital fund has raised over $3 million from dozens of Chattanooga area investors and six general partners, who will be tasked with managing the investments and overseeing the vetting process. In addition to Brock and Belitz, CRF is led by Stephen Culp, Founder of Smart Furniture and Delegator, Inc., Roddy Bailey, Partner at Miller & Martin, Jack Studer, a local venture capitalist and transportation executive Miller Welborn.

Local entrepreneurs are encouraged to submit business plans online at www.chattanoogarenaissancefund.com where more information is available about the fund, its purpose and its leadership. CRF will also consider applications from existing companies seeking additional capital to enable growth.

Chattanooga Renaissance Fund is a for-profit angel capital fund started and funded by local business leaders with the mission of enabling local entrepreneurs with capital investment and business mentorship in order to pave the way for a new generation of entrepreneurs to impact the Chattanooga area.

Charlie Brock and Jack Studer of CRF

Chattanooga, TN is a town where a lot more than 1 or 2 have worked. This city has a long history of breeding successful entrepreneurs, most notably with Coca Cola Bottling going back to 1899, where two lawyers travelled on borrowed funds from Chattanooga to Atlanta and persuaded the owners of Coke to give them exclusive rights to distribute Coca Cola products. This transaction was the start of billions of dollars of wealth being created by entrepreneurs in Chattanooga. The Chattanooga Renaissance Fund or also known as CRF has recently been launched by several of this cities most successful entrepreneurs with the mission of regenerating wealth, promoting entrepreneurship and fostering innovation. My guests today are two of CRF.s General Partners, Charlie Brock and Jack Studer, who will share their stories of entrepreneurship and their vision for CRF. Charlie is currently a Director at FourBridges Capital Advisors, a middle-market investment bank based in Chattanooga. He also serves as a director and organizer of Capital Mark Bank & Trust. Previously, he was with Brock Candy Company and in 1998, he helped start Foxmark Media, growing it into one of the nation.s leading mall advertising companies. As the company.s CEO and largest shareholder, he structured two rounds of private financing before selling the company in 2006 to Australian based EYE Corp.

Jack Studer attended Princeton where he studied Operations Research and Financial Engineering. He then worked for Credit Suisse in their Investment Banking Division, working primarily on M&A and IPO transactions for Clients such as Google, Omniture, Blackstone, Oracle and HP. He then co-founded DraftSpace, a document security SaaS company in London which was later sold to the Copal Group.