(Lincoln, NE – March 19, 2008) Invest Nebraska Corporation (www.investnebraskacorp.com), a non-profit organization committed to assisting emerging Nebraska-based businesses with fund-raising and business development efforts, announced today that it has entered into a $500,000 contract with the Nebraska Department of Economic Development (NDED).

Under the agreement, Invest Nebraska will carry out a state-mandated program to promote angel investment in Nebraska. The funding for the program is derived primarily from state appropriations, approved by the Nebraska State Legislature. Under the contract, Invest Nebraska will match at least one-third of the funds.

This goal is to create a state-wide angel investor network to help Nebraska businesses in the early stages of fund-raising. Angel investors are typically the first investor outside the scope of "family and friends", and allow emerging businesses to build up to venture capital and private equity investments.

Eligible candidates for angel investments include any individual, corporation, partnership, limited liability corporation, or joint-stock company, with its principal place of business in Nebraska. The program will also extend to start-ups elsewhere that are committed to basing their business in Nebraska.

As per the contract with the NDED, Invest Nebraska will commit to a two-year program consisting of three major components.

Angel Investment Fund Network
Invest Nebraska will create a statewide network for angel investor groups, serving as a hub for communication, information sharing, and deal flow between individual angel groups in each community. Invest Nebraska will also build a library of templates and sample documents to assist angel groups with paperwork pertaining to organization, fund formation, and due diligence.

Business Plan Competition
As part of the effort to identify plausible candidates for angel investments, Invest Nebraska will work with its partner the Hormel Family Foundation (www.hormelfamilyfoundation.com) to organize five business plan competitions in five Nebraska college cities. The finalists of these five competitions will later compete in a statewide competition, also to be organized by Invest Nebraska.

Angel Investment Education
In conjunction with each business plan competition, Invest Nebraska will organize local seminars to educate interested participants about the fundamentals of angel investment. The organization will actively seek angel investors and professional services providers to participate in these seminars. To further promote regional business growth, Invest Nebraska will create a statewide database of professional services providers.

Invest Nebraska is a non-profit organization committed to business creation in Nebraska by assisting new companies and growth stage companies in their early fund-raising and business development efforts. Our goal is to pave the way for emerging, potential high-growth Nebraska businesses, and facilitate access to capital, education, professional service, and business development resources.
For more information about Invest Nebraska Corporation, visit www.InvestNebraskaCorp.com.