Building the next generation of innovative, tech-enabled companies
About Us
If you’re an entrepreneur with an amazing product and loyal customers, then you’ve taken your company from 0 to 1. At Aquila, we can help you take it from 1 to 10.
When the internet was still in its infancy, our founder Mark E. Watson III sensed that technology was going to significantly transform business and the economy, just like it had previously triggered major industrial revolutions. So, in 1998, Mark co-founded Aquila Capital Partners to support and invest in companies that leverage potentially transformative technologies.
With expertise in investment, capital allocation, and strategy, Aquila has been helping innovative entrepreneurs build and scale their companies for over 25 years, by providing both financial and intellectual capital. Using an entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur approach, we help with all things funding, strategy, and scaling but also with navigating through shifting environments and world crises.
Areas of Investment
Fin/InsureTech
BioTech
AI
DTC Brands
Specialities
Funding: seed and early stage, from $1m to $150m in revenue
Product development and go-to-market strategy
Scaling and business strategy
Management and supply chain
Principal Founder
Mark E. Watson III
For over 25 years, Mark E. Watson III has been an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. Throughout his career, Watson ran 2 public companies—saving one from insolvency and turning it into a market leader with $10 billion in assets—acquired dozens of companies, both public and private, hired thousands of people, and navigated through major world crises.
Through his investment firm Aquila Capital Partners, which he cofounded in 1998, Watson supports the next generation of entrepreneurs who build innovative, technology-enabled companies.
Recent Investments
Insuretech Portfolio
Fintech Portfolio
Consumer Portfolio
Tech Portfolio
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Press
Having access to capital is one thing, but generating a return for your investors is another. On the Transform Your Confidence Show, Raj Girn and I discuss how...
The SPAC market is always changing, and leaders need to be prepared for what comes next. In this article, Mark E. Watson III outlines the major risks involved in SPACs,...
CEO and investor Mark E. Watson III discusses why SPACs are still a viable go-to-market strategy, and what company leaders need to know in order to best utilize this...
ALASTIN Skincare®, Inc. - a specialty aesthetics company dedicated to developing and marketing innovative, clinically-tested physician-dispensed skin care products,...
We’re pleased to announce that Aquila Capital Partners has been named an honoree on @Inc’s 2021 Founder-Friendly Investors list. This award honors the private equity...
Mark E. Watson dedicates all of his efforts to Aquila Capital Partners, a proprietary capital investment fund with the mission to...
Anyone can have a great idea, but turning that idea into a successful business requires a completely different skill set. Helping entrepreneurs turn their ideas into...
In this episode, Mark E. Watson III discusses how he overcame these economic shocks in order to transform a $300 million company nearing insolvency into a $3 billion...
Where would you invest one million dollars in today’s economic client? In this article, Mark Watson, founder of Aquila Capital Partners, explains why investing in...
True innovation in the insurance industry is still a ways away. We must move beyond tweaking our products and procedures and learn to better serve our customers.
The pandemic changed the way we think about work. In a post-pandemic world, what is the future of work? Our everyday business strategies have changed, causing companies...
Building a business isn’t easy, but according to investor and entrepreneur Mark E. Watson III, scaling a company involves one potentially surprising factor: simplicity....
Entrepreneur, leader, and CEO of Aquila Capital Partners, Mark Watson, shares that the key to success for remote leaders is to understand the importance for...
Mark Watson most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Argo Group. He first invested in Argo’s predecessor company, Argonaut Group, in 1998. He joined the board...
When Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005, it caused 1,800 deaths and some USD125 billion in damage, flooding about 80% of New Orleans, Louisiana. At the time, it...
If we want to save millions of jobs, protect livelihoods, and plant the seeds for a robust economic recovery, Congress and the White House need to do much more to...
ALASTIN Skincare®’s INhance Post-Injection Serum with TriHex Technology® Helps Accelerate Recovery from Post-Injection Bruising and Swelling
Attempts to stimulate the US economy amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will not work without the introduction of a government reinsurance backstop for pandemic,...
The $2 trillion stimulus package — amounting to roughly 10 percent of GDP — represents a prodigious attempt at addressing a severe economic downturn and assisting...
Mark E. Watson III is an entrepreneur who has been investing in innovative companies for over three decades.
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Blog
"We almost hired a human, but we decided not to." Recently, a friend of mine made this comment as we were discussing AI tools, perfectly capturing the essence of...
Is it foreseeable that your bank is going to have a run on it? Thanks to social media connectivity, possibly. But is it foreseeable that anything above $250,000 in...
"I was fired from my own company!" These words from Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, are a stark reminder of the balancing act that founders must navigate...
Recession is coming. For at least some parts of the economy, in one form or another. The FED has not raised rates this precipitously since the 1980s, and even then, the...
If you think you can just go out there and get your company funded, think again. For every 100 entrepreneurs, just 1 will succeed in getting funded. According to...
In 2021, cryptocurrency attracted more attention and money than all previous years combined, to the tune of roughly $30B. This is about four times the amount of money...
In unpredictable and unprecedented times, it is important to become a student of your environment. This looks different in different fields. Doctors look for emerging...
Starting a business presents unique challenges. Entrepreneurs often have difficulty finding the right mentors and people in their...