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For most portable devices, Angel Investing News is also available as a web app named “Angel Investing News,” which runs on iPhones, Androids, iPads, most tablets, and Apple and Windows PCs.  To view the app, click here on the device you wish to run it or copy this url into a browser:  http://MobileOnlineApps.com/demo_28094    You will be given the option of running the app directly or using the pop-up message to download our icon to your home screen. We suggest the latter. For the socially minded, we post a link to each new issue on Facebook and Twitter. On either Facebook or Twitter, search for Angel Investing News; on Facebook, click “Like,” on Twitter, click “Follow.”  To use Twitter effectively, we find ourselves reading a great number of tweets from prominent journalists such as Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe, Chris O’Brien of the LA Times, Peter Delevett of the San Jose Mercury, and Kyle Alspach of the Boston Business Journal; also from leading Angels such a Jean Hammond, Christopher Mirabile, Bill Payne, Dharmesh Shah, David Cohen, Joe Caruso, Chris Sheehan, John Landry, Ham Lord, Katie Rae, and many others. As a service to you, we retweet the very best of these every day.

Twitter Acquires Crashlytics while, at 364% IRR, Angels and VCs Sing their Glorious Strain

While the actual numbers remain a widely held secret, Gregory T. Huang of Xconomy states that Twitter just paid  over $100 million in cash and stock  for Cambridge based Crashlytics, which provides bug fixing tools for mobile developers. This appears to be Twitters largest purchase to date.

“Crashlytics  raised about $6 million from Flybridge Capital Partners, Baseline Ventures, and a lineup of angel investors who are household names in Boston tech,”  says Huang.   “I’m hearing that those angels got a higher-than-10x return on their investment, plus some of their original money back (because the company apparently didn’t spend it).” We are unsure of the actual closing dates, but seed round to exit appears to be about 16 months.

Among seed investors was the Common Angels. "We were very fortunate to back two world-class founders, Jeff Seibert and Wayne Chang,” says Managing Director Chris Sheehan.  “Jeff, Wayne and the Crashlytics team built a very successful crash reporting solution used in many of the top iOS apps today. And while the purchase price was not disclosed, this was a great outcome for the team and investors. We wish the team all the very best on the next part of their amazing journey."

Other Angels participating in Crashlytics’ funding were Joe Caruso, managing partner at Bantam Group, member of the eCoast and Common Angels; Jennifer Lum, Cofounder @Adelphic Mobile, Mentor @TechStars; Ty Danco, founder of eSecLending, member of North Country Angels and Anges Quebec; David Chang, COO of @PayPal Media Network;  Lars Albright, co-founder of Quattro, now Apple iAds; and Roy Rodenstein Co-founder & CEO, SocMetrics, Co-founder HackerAngels.

Our recent post on M&A activity said it was a tough way for an angel to make a living.  Not true with an IRR of 364%.

And what do we hear from the Angels? “As an investor, I’m thrilled with the returns from the Crashlytics acquisition,” says Lum.

Angel Investing News App Now Available

We are delighted to announce that this blog is now available as a web app, also named  “Angel Investing News,” which runs on iPhones, Androids, iPads, most tablets, and Apple and Windows PCs.  We would appreciate your giving it a try. 

To view the app, click here on the device you wish to run it or copy this url into a browser.:  http://MobileOnlineApps.com/demo_28094  

Should you not have the url handy at the time,  a Google search for "Angel Investing News App" should locate this post.

You will be given the option of running the app directly or using the pop-up message to download an icon to your home screen. We suggest the latter.

Contents:

In “George’s Blog” you can read the latest posts from the Angel Investing News blog, comprising original news and opinions written by angels, for angels.

“ AngelTweet”  consists of  our Editor’s daily selection of current tweets by angels, journalists, and opinion leaders in our nationwide innovation ecosystem.  Look for top national journalists including Scott Kirsner, Kyle Alspach, and Chris O’Brien. Also angels you might know: Joe Caruso, Christopher Mirabile, David Cohen, Jean Hammond, Chris Sheehan, John Landry, Ham Lord, and many others.

Background and Purpose:

A couple of years ago we started a blog, Smart Phones: Technology and Business Apps, building a pretty good readership among local angels.  The limit to growth soon became obvious: many of our non-technology oriented angels had difficulty regularly accessing the blogs. We believe the same problem also exists today with Twitter. 

Our web app is designed to make it astonishingly simple to access both this blog and a daily dose of the nation’s best angel-related Tweets. Just download the icon and you are set forever.  Any problems navigating the material simply restart the app using the icon.

Introducing the Angel Investing Gazette:

This brand new app is both a publication and an information hub, a “hublication” ™. The target user is an angel investor who is not necessarily comfortable searching and reading blogs, tweets, and YouTube.  It incorporates the Angel Investing News and adds a superset of significant other material.  You can download this hublication at http://MobileOnlineApps.com/demo_30292

Here is an overview of the tabs.

• “About us” is a brief introduction.
• In “George’s Blog” you can read the latest posts from the Angel Investing News blog, comprising original news and opinions written by angels, for angels.
• “ AngelTweet” consists of our Editor’s selection of current tweets by angels, journalists, and opinion leaders in our nationwide innovation ecosystem.
• “More News Feeds” contains the latest articles by Kyle Alppach of the Boston Business Journal, George Lipper, and Christopher Mirabile.
• “Angel Resources” includes links to other angel groups in New England and nationwide, the ACA, the Angel Resource Institute, and video interviews with experienced angels including Joe Caruso, Jean Hammond, and Christopher Mirabile.
• “Locations” provides you with maps and directions to many of the sites where angels often meet, from the NERD Center in Cambridge to River Valley Investors in Holyoke.

This is a beta version of this App. As the old congressman said to the voters, If you don’t like it, I’ll change it. Your feedback is greatly encouraged.

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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.