Founded in 1999, Acorn Angels is an affiliate of business incubator Acorn Campus. Acorn Angels helps promising high-tech entrepreneurs spread their wings and fly. A group of Silicon Valley investors that includes CEOs and venture capitalists, Acorn Angels provides capital and business development support to early-stage companies. The group looks for start-ups with strong leadership and viable intellectual property; it also seeks companies formed around new ideas, or what it refers to as disruptive technologies. Target industries include communications, Internet infrastructure, fiber optics, and wireless communications. Investments have included Alliance Fiber Optic Products and CipherMax.

Allegis Capital was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California with additional offices in Santa Monica, California and San Francisco, California. Allegis Capital is a venture capital firm specializing in investments in seed and early-stage startup companies. The firm also provides incubation services. It typically invests in developing enabling technology and infrastructure, which serve emerging information technology markets with a focus on enabling hardware devices, enterprise software solutions, broadband and wireless delivery technologies, wired and wireless communications, digital media and commerce enablers, internet delivery platforms and services, security, and information services. The firm prefers to invest in the western region of United States and selected investments in Asia. It seeks to invest between $3 million and $5 million in its first investment to acquire an initial 20 % ownership stake in companies and provides capital support for subsequent financings. The firm typically acts as the lead investor and will partner with other venture capital firms. It prefers a board seat on its portfolio companies.

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (Goldman Sachs) is a bank holding and a global investment banking, securities and investment management company. The Company provides a range of financial services to customers, including corporations, financial institutions, governments and high-net-worth individuals. Its depository institution subsidiary, Goldman Sachs Bank USA (GS Bank USA), is a New York State-chartered bank. It operates in three segments: Investment Banking, Trading and Principal Investments and Asset Management and Securities Services. In March 2010, the Company's subsidiaries sold the La Francia mine and related infrastructure assets, including Concession 5160, and Adromi Capital Corp., the holder of the La Francia II concession, to a subsidiary of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. In May 2010, Nexen Inc. sold its natural gas trading operations to a unit of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

EZCORP, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, lends or provides credit services to individuals to meet their short-term cash needs. EZCORP, Inc. offers pawn loans, which are non recourse loans collateralized by tangible personal property, including jewelry, consumer electronics, tools, sporting goods, and musical instruments. EZCORP, Inc. also provides signature loans consisting of payday loans, installment loans, auto title loans, or fee-based credit services to customers seeking loans. In addition, EZCORP provides credit services, including advice and assistance to customers in obtaining loans from unaffiliated lenders. As of September 30, 2009, EZCORP, Inc. operated a total of 910 locations consisting of 369 the U.S. pawnshops, 62 pawnshops in Mexico, 477 the U.S. short-term loan stores, and 2 short-term loan stores in Canada. EZCORP, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

The General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church (GBOPHB) supervises and administers pension, retirement, investment, health care, disability, and death benefit plans for more than 74,000 church clergy, lay employees, and their families. Formed in 1908, the not-for-profit GBOPHB manages more than $16 billion in assets and is the nation's largest faith-based pension funds. GBOPHB focuses on socially responsible investing (SRI) and has taken an activist stance in addressing major corporations about such issues as global vendor standards, employee wages, and genetically modified foods.

Founded in 1983, Accel Partners traditionally has made early-stage investments in two sectors, software and networking, and has some $3 billion under management. Accel Partners company's investment history includes a who's who of tech powerhouses such as Macromedia, Riverbed, and Facebook. Based in Silicon Valley, Accel also has offices in China, London, and India. Accel looks to invest in companies that were founded by entrepreneurs but are run by experienced management teams. Accel provides strategic financing, recruiting, and business development, among other services.

KPS Capital Partners, LP was founded in 1997 and is based in New York, New York. KPS Capital Partners, LP is a private equity firm specializing in investments in, turnarounds, financial restructurings, businesses in bankruptcies, follow on acquisitions, employee buyouts, failed acquisitions, corporate divestitures, carve-outs, and spin-offs of middle market companies. In case of turnarounds, the firm seeks to invest in of underperforming or distressed businesses. It targets business facing closure, liquidation, and with a history of operating losses. In case of business in bankruptcies, it seeks to invest in, fund reorganizations of, and create new companies to purchase operating assets of, companies facing bankruptcy or asset sale under Section 363. The firm targets businesses burdened with, insufficient liquidity; excessive debt; operating in default of obligations to creditors; or lacking capital for investment, modernization, or growth, in order to eliminate, reduce or restructure the company's liabilities. The firm also seeks to invest in operating businesses, including divisions, subsidiaries or individual plants of larger companies capable of operating as stand-alone companies.

Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank offers various products and services in capital markets, investment banking, structured finance, corporate banking, and international private banking. Its Coverage and Investment Banking division monitors and develops corporate and financial institutions in France and internationally. This division’s operations comprise advisory services and equity financing operations, including mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets, corporate equity derivatives, and loan syndication, as well as Islamic banking. The company’s Equity Brokerage and Derivatives division involves in the trading, sale, and arbitrage of equity derivatives, index derivatives, simple or complex structured products, warrants, certificates, and indexed products. Its Fixed Income Markets division offers standard and structured market products, including commodities, debt and credit markets, foreign exchange, interest rate derivatives, and treasury for corporate and financial institutions. The company’s Structured Finance division consists of originating, structuring, and financing operations involving large-scale exports and investments in France and internationally, backed by collateral security, as well as complex and structured loans.

Fiske Plc is a UK agency brokerage firm serving private clients; Fiske also is seeing growth in its institutional investor business. The company also offers corporate financial advising. In June 2002 the company acquired investment bank Ionian Group Ltd. The unit, which does business as Ionian Investment Management, serves corporate, institutional, and private investment clients. Jove Investment Trust controlled nearly 20% of Fiske, but reduced its stake in 2004.

Founded in 1932, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. is unrelated to investment bank Duff & Phelps Corporation. Duff & Phelps Investment Management manages mutual funds, closed-end funds, and institutional accounts with investments real estate investment trusts (REITs) -- its specialty -- global utilities and infrastructure stocks, large-cap equities, and investment-grade fixed-income products. Clients include individual investors, corporations, retirement funds, endowments, and not-for-profits. A subsidiary of Virtus Investment Partners, the company has approximately $6 billion in assets under management. Both Duff & Phelps and Virtus (formerly Phoenix Investment Partners) were spun off from The Phoenix Companies in 2008.

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