Ankeny Angels
Ankeny Angels is a member-driven angel investment group based in Ankeny, Iowa, that backs early-stage Midwest startups in consumer, agricultural, and health products. Founded in 2015, its roughly 25 accredited members invest individually rather than from a pooled fund. The one water company (don't) Waste Water tracks in its book is Gross-Wen Technologies.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Ankeny Angels started in 2015 as a civic project, not a fund. The city of Ankeny, the local economic-development corporation, and the chamber of commerce wanted a way to keep Central Iowa startup capital at home, and Joey Beech, who ran the development corporation at the time, pulled the first members together. A decade on it is still a quiet, member-driven angel group: roughly 25 accredited investors (people who meet the US wealth thresholds to back private startups) around the Des Moines suburbs who write their own cheques rather than pooling into one managed fund.
Ankeny Angels works the way the name suggests. Companies pitch the room, each member decides individually whether to put money in, and the group leans toward what it knows best: consumer and agricultural products and health-care businesses, more than software. Across its first decade the members have put about 1.5 million dollars into 13 companies, small first cheques paired with mentoring and introductions across the Iowa business network.
Ankeny Angels is not a water investor by design, and water reaches it through agriculture, which in Iowa always comes back to water. The one water company (don't) Waste Water tracks in its book is Gross-Wen Technologies, an Ames spin-out of Iowa State University whose revolving algal biofilm reactor grows algae on slow-moving conveyor belts to pull nitrogen and phosphorus out of municipal wastewater, then sells the harvested algae as fertiliser. It is exactly the kind of practical, farm-adjacent clean-tech an Iowa angel group understands.
For a newcomer the read on Ankeny Angels is simple. It is a local, relationship-driven angel network rather than a thesis-led water fund, and its water exposure is essentially one strong bet that (don't) Waste Water has followed across two funding rounds. As of 2026 it stays an Occasional water backer in the Leviathan data, but Gross-Wen is the sort of nutrient-recovery story that could pull a group like this deeper into water as agriculture and clean water keep converging. Worth a bookmark if you follow Midwest water and ag-tech, even while the water book is still a single name.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Ankeny Angels invest in?
- Ankeny Angels backs early-stage companies in consumer and agricultural products and health care, mostly across Central Iowa. Members make their own individual investments rather than deploying a pooled fund, writing small first cheques alongside mentoring. The one water company (don't) Waste Water tracks in its portfolio is Gross-Wen Technologies, an algae-based wastewater treatment startup.
- Who runs Ankeny Angels?
- Ankeny Angels was founded in 2015 and is led by Joey Beech, who facilitated the group while serving as executive director of the Ankeny Economic Development Corporation. The group is member-driven: roughly 25 accredited Central Iowa investors hear pitches and each decides individually, with Beech organising the network rather than directing a managed fund.
- Where is Ankeny Angels based?
- Ankeny Angels is based in Ankeny, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines in the United States. It grew out of a 2015 partnership between the city of Ankeny, the local economic-development corporation, and the chamber of commerce. It focuses on Iowa-based startups, though companies do not have to be from Ankeny to pitch the group.
- Is Ankeny Angels a water fund?
- Ankeny Angels is a general early-stage angel group, not a water-only fund, and water reaches it through its agricultural focus. (don't) Waste Water tracks one water company in its book, Gross-Wen Technologies, which uses revolving algal biofilm reactors to recover nitrogen and phosphorus from municipal wastewater while producing a saleable algae fertiliser.
- Is Ankeny Angels the same as Gross-Wen Technologies?
- No. Ankeny Angels is the Iowa angel investor group; Gross-Wen Technologies is one of its portfolio companies. Gross-Wen is a separate Ames, Iowa business, spun out of Iowa State University, that builds algae-based wastewater treatment systems. Ankeny Angels provides capital and mentoring, while Gross-Wen builds the water technology.