Angel Round Sizes and Valuations Rising Says New HALO Report

Both round sizes and seed stage valuations  for angel investments have continued to rise according to a national survey of angel group investment activity released today. “There has been a long term trend towards increasing round sizes and valuation in all geographies. What makes this report unique is, for the first time, we can see the difference between regions within those trends, and also relative to industry sectors” says Rob Wiltbank, Vice Chairman of Research for the  Angel Resource Institute at Willamette University (ARI).

Highlights of the 2015 Q2 ARI HALO Report: Geography Edition

·      Seed stage valuations have risen steadily over the last five years to an all-time high of 3.95M (Median), a 30% increase over 2014.

·      Round sizes in deals with only angel investors have grown from $800K in 2014 to over $1M year to date in 2015.

·      All regions across the U.S. have seen increases in round size in the last 6 quarters. The largest increases in round sizes were in the Great Plains ($0.2 to $1.1M), Mid-Atlantic ($0.3M to $1.5M), and Northwest ($0.3M to $1.5M) regions.

·      Over the last 5 years, California consistently completed the most investments, at 19.6% of the total, with New England (12.7%), and the Great Lakes (12.2%) following closely behind. 

·      Angel investing activity is equally distributed across the country when parsed either East and West or North and South at approximately 50% / 50%.

·      Each region has different industry concentrations. California and New York tend toward Mobile and Internet, while Texas has completed more investments in Food & Beverage than any other region. The Great Lakes tend toward Industrial and Healthcare, while New England and the Southeast maintain a relatively balanced “portfolio” across sectors.

The ARI Halo Report includes aggregate analysis of investment activity by angels and angel groups, and highlights trends in round sizes, location, and industry preferences. The data is collected via survey and aggregation of public data using innovative data analyses. The 2015 Q2 ARI HALO Report: Geography Edition data is based on 4,719 deals totaling $7.5B in total rounds including co-investors. The full report can be accessed here.

Angel groups and individual angel investors interested in including their data in the ARI Halo Report should contact Katie Hamburg, (425) 330-0952 or khamburg@angelresource.org

The Angel Resource Institute at Willamette University  is a charitable organization devoted to education, mentoring, and research in the field of angel investing, a growing driver of our entrepreneurial economy. ARI was founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The programs of ARI include educational workshops and seminars, research projects and reports, and information on best practices related to the earliest stages of angel investing and new-venture development.

Willamette University MBA is a leader in early stage investment research and entrepreneurship. In addition to being the home of the Angel Resource Institute, Willamette launched the world’s first student run angel investment fund in 2008. Willamette faculty and researchers published the world’s largest and most cited study on angel investor returns, Returns to Angel Investors in Groups (2007), and one of the most widely used textbooks on entrepreneurship, Effectual Entrepreneurship (2011). They also preform data analysis for the HALO Report.