Desert Angels moves up to #5 on HALO Report for most active angel investor groups in US

The Angel Resource Institute, Silicon Valley Bank and CB Insights released the 2014 Q1 HALO Report, a national survey of angel group investment activity, and ranked Tucson-based Desert Angels (DA) again as one of the top 10 most active angel groups in the country.
Curtis Gunn, chairman of Desert Angels, tells AZTB, “Desert Angels are very excited to continue the string of top 10 rankings we have had in the quarterly HALO Report.”
In 2013, DA finished up 8^th  for most active angel group, and for Q1 they moved up to  5^th place under Central Texas Angel Network, Robin Hood Ventures, Alliance of Angels and Angel Investor Forum.
Read: Desert Angels made top 10 for 2013 HALO Report
The report revealed that the average round sizes went up to $1.23M, a 13M increase from 2014 Q4, but decreased slightly when angel groups co-invested with other type of investors from $1.65 million from $1.8 million in Q4 2013.

In terms of deal flow, healthcare and mobile/telecom made the list again, however showing a slight decline in round size. Internet-based companies did show a significant increase from $1.03M in Q4 2013 to $1.85M in Q1 2014.
Good news for startups, seed stage pre-money valuation shows an increase from $2.5M in Q4 2013 to $2.7M.
For DA, they intend to stay focused on life science, hardware, software, SaaS, mobile and clean tech and look for home-grown companies to fund. In 2013, they placed over $5.5M into 23 different companies, with the majority in Arizona, and to date they’ve funded over 20 companies.
“In terms of number of investments, we are currently in the midst of the most active investment year we have ever had in our 14 year history,” Gunn said. “With the Fall still ahead of us, I think we are going to have an incredible number by the end of the year! I’m very proud that we have been able to achieve these results and significantly support the startup ecosystem in Arizona.”
Read: Who are the Desert Angels and will they fund my startup?
Read the complete HALO Report here.
Graphics courtesy of SVB, Angel Resource Institute & CB Insights
Corrections: DA funded over 20 companies to date, not just in Q1