The Angel Resource Institute, Silicon Valley Bank and CB Insights released the 2013 Halo Report Thursday, which finds angel activity on the rise with more high-valuation deals closed in 2013 than the previous year. While median round sizes held steady at $600K per deal, they were at a three year high when angels co-invested with non-angels. The share of angel investment in Internet, healthcare and mobile startups continued to increase. Golden Seeds, Tech Coast Angels, and Houston Angel Network, which is new to the list, were the three most active angel groups in 2013.

"The angel investing market is showing early signs of warming up, with co-investment round sizes and valuations trending upward to three year highs," said Rob Wiltbank, Vice Chairman of Research, Angel Resource Institute.  "With a continued progression toward more even distribution of investments nationally, entrepreneurs throughout the country are likely to find it easier to access angel investors for critical early stage funding."

The largest share of angel deals (19%), with the greatest amount of investment (20%), continue to occur in California, yet overall deals are becoming more evenly distributed across the rest of the nation. The dollars invested, however, remain more concentrated.  In 2013, 67% of angel group dollars were invested in the top five out of ten regions:California, New England, Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic and the Southeast.  The same five regions completed 63% of the deals.

Halo Report 2013 Highlights:  

Round Sizes 
Median angel round sizes remained steady over a three year period and were $600K for 2013. When angel groups co-invest with other types of investors, the median round size reached $1.7M, which was a three-year high, but fell in Q4 following an upward trend earlier in the year.  

Valuations 
The most consistent finding in the report is median pre-money valuations in early-stage companies, which remain steady at $2.5M year over year. However, 2013 saw more high-valuation deals close than 2012, despite the consistent median.  

Geography 
Year over year, only New York and the Mid-Atlantic region gained a larger share of both deals and  dollars in 2013. By the same measure, New England and the Northwest produced a smaller share of deals and invested dollars than they had the prior year. California and the Great Lakes led in share of deals in 2013, while California and New England led in share of dollars invested.

Sectors 
Together, Internet, healthcare and mobile companies comprised an even higher percentage of angel group deals (74%) and angel group dollars (79%), a significant increase from the prior year. Internet companies saw the largest increase over other sectors in share of deals and dollars in 2013.