Heimdall Networks CEO Jim DeLeskie declined to be interviewed about his company until January of 2013, preferring to quietly develop his software for about a year without any publicity. Sydney, N.S.-based Heimdall is developing a product that protects corporations and governments against distributed denial-of-service attacks, the type of stuff that the Anonymous group does to shut down websites. Heimdall’s market is a high-growth, high-interest sector with a lot of players and rapid advances in technology. DeLeskie didn’t want to tip his hand to competitors by going public too soon.

But here’s the interesting thing about Heimdall: By the time DeLeskie granted an interview, he had already raised more than $1 million in angel funding from a single investor. He didn’t use a formal network. And he didn’t leave Nova Scotia to secure the funding. A single individual invested $1 million-plus in the company, signalling something curious that’s happening in the region.

 “I was lucky to be able to work with an angel who could and would fund my start-up,” says DeLeskie.  “I not only saved time beating the bushes but was also able to walk away from what would have been not so good deals for me as a founder.”

Angels are loosely defined as individuals who invest in companies during the early stages, and they’re becoming a more and more important factor in the financing of Atlantic Canadian young companies. The successful exits of such companies as Radian6, Q1 Labs, and GoInstant has piqued the interest of wealthy individuals in regional start-ups. There was a time when such people would invest mainly through the First Angel Network, which has channelled about $9 million into 23 companies over eight years. More recently other groups, such as the Newfoundland and Labrador Angel Network and East Valley Ventures, have leant structure to angel financing.

But increasingly, Atlantic Canadian founders are approaching angel investors and getting more from outside an organized group. According to data collected by Entrevestor, 43 Atlantic Canadian companies received at least $17.9 million in 2012, which excluded funding by Clarity because it featured VC and angel funding. The previous year, 11 companies  reported raising at least $8.4 million. These figures include funding by founders, including the $3.6 million that CEO Chuck Cartmill invested in LED Roadway Lighting in 2011. (We admit that data on angel funding is never complete because so many investments are made quietly. These figures reflect investments that were reported to Entrevestor.)

One important factor in angel-funding growth is that 21 companies brought in money from individuals outside the region last year. That’s important because young companies in Atlantic Canada need to expand their networks and increase sales overseas. Attracting outside investors helps expand contacts in other markets.

In broader terms, the rising trend of angel investing helps because it tends to be less complicated than attracting money from a venture capital firm; there’s less legal work and fewer hoops. Generally speaking, you can save time and resources by finding early stage funding through angels.

DeLeskie has a single funder, meaning he can keep in touch with his source of funds with one phone call. “I believe it will produce a better end result, in terms of meeting and managing expectations and my time,” he says. “And every founder knows that time is the one thing even more scarce than money.” [Editor's note: this is the latest in the series of articles taken from Progress Media and Entrevestor's supplement on the Atlantic Canadian Ecosystem.]