Pursuing wider deal flow, Jacksonville investment group merges with statewide 'angel syndicate'

By Carter Mudgett – Reporter, Jacksonville Business Journal

Oct 2, 2026

One of Florida’s most active angel investing organizations is taking a Jacksonville-founded group under its wing.

JaxAngels will merge with New World Angels, local leaders announced during a networking event Thursday evening. The partnership aims to widen the group’s view beyond Jacksonville’s startup scene and bring more capital to promising local companies.

The organization today known as New World was created and renamed earlier this year when Miami Angels and Boca Raton’s New World Angels merged in March.

Founded in 2013, Miami Angels has invested in nearly 100 startups. It was the state's most active angel investor group in the first half of 2025, with 42 deals completed, according to data from a BIP Ventures report. New World Angels was also among the state's most active angel investors, with nine deals completed during that period.

The merged firm is stacked with investors with a variety of professional backgrounds, including consumer products, health care, medical technology, financial technology and the space and defense industries. Combined, it has more than $65 million in investments deployed, focused on supporting early-stage startups statewide.

Back on the First Coast, JaxAngels was founded by a handful of local investors in 2019, founding member and PS27 CEO Jim Stallings recounted. Over the years since, the group has kept its founding principle at heart: invest in Jacksonville companies with Jacksonville money.

Seven years on, the self-sustaining group has grown significantly.

Joining New World is a move from a largely local investing network toward a broader Florida pipeline — without abandoning its Jacksonville roots.

“We can't see enough just in the market that we're in,” Stallings said. “We want to see Florida. We want to see the Southeast. We want people to come from the West here. We want people to come from the North here. We also need a big tank of capital.”

The evolution is an opportunity, not a guarantee of funding for local startups.

New World Angels received 1,400 funding requests last year, President Ron Tarro said Thursday. Each quarter, the group aims to make about one new investment — making for a selective battle.

The group is what Tarro called an “angel syndicate,” not a fund. That means when New World finds a company worth investing in, it passes the hat to membership and they put dollars into the hat — a capital call. Its minimum check size is $250,000, Tarro said.

“Our reputation in the marketplace is smart money,” he added, “hard to get.”

But just because JaxAngels is joining New World, that doesn’t mean the local brand will disappear, Stallings and Tarro clarified.

Exact details aren’t yet confirmed but the pair said it’ll likely turn into JaxAngels chapter of New World.

For the Jacksonville angel group, this will be a test as to whether a wider network can bring Northeast Florida more promising deals and capital, while preserving the local relationships it’s grounded in.