Northeast Angel Groups Cited for Activity, Investment

Three of our angel groups here in the Northeast were cited as among the most active and largest angel investors in the first half of this year, according to the recently released HALO report.  Launchpad and Golden Seeds were among the seven most active groups in the country.  Common Angels joins them among the ten biggest investors.

For the  first half of 2012, Launchpad made:

 1) Six new seed investments,

2) Three new large investments,

3) Eight follow-on investments.

In total, they have invested over $1.5 million.

Many of the most active angel groups also have sidecar funds (or the funds have sidecar angels).  Impressively, Launchpad does not have a fund.  Admittedly, they are a large group, almost 100 members now, but clearly Directors Hambleton Lord and Christopher Mirabile  are doing an outstanding job.  Typically, Ham credits the members. “Christopher and I are having a lot of fun working together and we are really pleased with tremendous amount of work that our members contribute to the entrepreneurial community.”

Golden Seeds differs greatly. Their network now runs at least 260 members deep across New York, Boston, Dallas and San Francisco/Silicon Valley. Golden Seeds’ also manages a $26.5 million fund, their second fund, which closed in late 2011.

“We’re doing 10 to 12 new deals a year and between eight and 12 follow-on deals. We’re closing deals almost every month. We’re very, very active,” says Managing Director Peggy Wallace.  "For the first half of 2012,  we have invested $3.2Mm in 8 companies. We don’t break our information out by region," reports Operations Manager Lauren Kane.

For more about the founding and growth of Golden Seeds, Xconomy recently published an interview with Wallace.  

Common Angels also has a fund, but I don’t know the size. According to Managing Director Chris Sheehan, they have done nine deals for a total over $2 million this year.

Other items from the Halo report that might interest you, provided by Sarah Dickey of the Angel Resource Institute.

Pre-money valuations for pre-Series A deals by angel groups increased to $2.7 million in Q2, up from $2.5M in Q1, based on the trailing 12 months, Median angel round sizes dropped 21% to $550K over 1H 2011, returning to 2010 round amounts, Internet companies received more investment dollars than healthcare companies for the first time, The most active angel groups (deals) were Tech Coast Angels, Central Texas Angel Network, Launchpad Venture Group, Golden Seeds, Sand Hill Angels, and Investors' Circle, The biggest investors among angel groups (dollars) were Tech Coast Angels, Central Texas Angel Network, Sand Hill Angels, Golden Seeds, Launchpad Venture Group, Alliance of Angels, Arizona Technology Investor Forum, Common Angels, Desert Angels and Atlanta Technology Angels.

The HALO report is sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank and the Angel Research Institute, using data provided by CB Insights. The full  report and an infographic are available on the Angel Resource Institute Web site.