# Desert Angels

> Desert Angels is a VC fund in Tucson backing SaaS and Software. See 40 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Tucson, United States
- Total investments: 40
- Last investment: Aug 2025
- Lead investor: 13%
- Fund size: $638k
- Last fund: Sep 2021
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/desert-angels/
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/DesertAngelsAZ
- Website: http://www.desertangels.org

Desert Angels is a VC fund in Tucson focused on SaaS and Software. Founded in 2000 and based in Tucson, AZ, the Desert Angels is a non-profit organization of accredited investors looking for opportunities to invest in early-stage companies. We focus on companies with new innovations in science, tech and SAAS, and our portfolio spans a broad range of industries. Our members will invest $4million-$6million per yearinto roughly 20 deals, about half of which are follow-on rounds. We offer a Sidecar fund which automatically co-invests when specific criteria are met. We are nationally recognized, and in the most recent ARI HALO report listed #7 in the country and #1 in the southwest region as one of the most active angel groups. The Desert Angels is a charter member of the Angel Capital Association (ACA), the trade association of angel investment groups; and an active member in the Angel Syndication Network (ASN), a network of angel groups that syndicate deals.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Desert Angels. Shizune tracks 3 team members at Desert Angels. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/desert-angels?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $702k–$4.5M |
| Series A | $1.8M–$21M |
| Series B | $1.2M–$70M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| SaaS | 5 | 13% |
| Software | 5 | 13% |
| Health Care | 5 | 13% |
| Biotechnology | 5 | 13% |
| Education | 3 | 8% |

64 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 13 | 33% |
| Series A | 9 | 23% |
| Series B | 4 | 10% |
| Angel | 3 | 8% |
| Funding Round | 3 | 8% |

8 stages tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Joann MacMaster | Chief Executive Officer; Member | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/joann-macmaster-2 |
| Louise Downs Blain | Founder | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/louise-downs-blain |
| Michael Sember | Chair Desert Angels Screeing Panel | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/michael-sember |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Delta Development | Delta manufactures battery operated, medical refrigerators designed to store vaccines and blood products in any climate or environment. Delta is an innovator and manufacturer of ruggedized thermal systems, specializing in military applications. |  | Series A | Aug 04, 2025 |  |
| Delta Development | Delta manufactures battery operated, medical refrigerators designed to store vaccines and blood products in any climate or environment. Delta is an innovator and manufacturer of ruggedized thermal systems, specializing in military applications. |  | Series A | Sep 25, 2023 |  |
| Linshom Medical, Inc. | Linshom is first to deliver continuous respiratory monitoring, including Tidal Volume, to the patient bedside. | $2.2M | Series A | Aug 15, 2023 |  |
| MessageDesk | MessageDesk is a shared team inbox for business text messaging. They help service-based businesses and organizations fill their day-to-day communication gaps with text messages that start and manage customer conversations, keep teammates connected, schedule service appointments, send reminders, collect payments, and automatically follow up onfeedback and reviews. | $1.7M | Seed | Mar 24, 2023 |  |
| Qwick | Qwick is the professional platform at the heart of the hospitality industry that matches experienced food and beverage freelancers with shifts in real time. Dedicated to serving those who serve us, Qwick empowers businesses to fill shifts and staff flexibly, while freelancers enjoy the freedom to make their own schedules and get paid the same day.As a growth-stage tech company, Qwick is rapidly expanding across the country and serves as a hospitality industry through-line. Qwick has earned multiple national recognitions, including “Great Place to Work” certification for two consecutive years, and is the 32nd fastest-growing company in the U.S. on the 2022 Inc. 5000 list. Learn more at qwick.com. | $40M | Series B | Nov 01, 2022 |  |
| Lemon Perfect | Lemon Perfect is a super-refreshing, great-tasting, and hydrating flavored lemon water with zero sugar and no artificial flavors or sweeteners. Powered by squeezed organic lemons, Lemon Perfect contains electrolytes from potassium and is packed with vitamin C, making healthy hydration more convenient, delicious, and refreshing than ever.TheCompany’s mission is to promote healthy hydration and deliver the joy of flavor—anytime, anywhere, and for everyone.The Lemon Perfect Company is headquartered in Atlanta, GA. | $6.6M | Seed | Aug 19, 2020 |  |
| Botco.ai | Botco.ai is a fully-automated, AI-powered marketing chat solution that can be implemented at scale to improve engagement rates. Today, the company offers industry-leading authoring, webchat, and AI machine-learning capabilities to quickly and effectively convert more customers. Botco.ai’s Integrated Analytics Dashboard provides a comprehensive viewof chat campaigns across multiple channels such as web and Facebook Messenger. The API-based interface can be used to transfer leads, transcripts, and data into enterprise sales and marketing automation products like Salesforce, Hubspot, Adobe Marketing Cloud, and Zoho. |  | Seed | Jun 05, 2020 |  |
| Aural Analytics | Bringing together decades of research on neurological diseases, artificial intelligence (AI), neuroscience, speech analytics, speech pathology, and mobile software platforms for health monitoring, Aural Analytics has built proprietary metrics that use speech to capture changes in neurological health. With Aural Analytics’ downloadable apps, anysmartphone or tablet becomes a powerful brain health monitor.This technology augments traditional functional rating scales commonly used to measure neurological health in clinical trials with objective, interpretable, and continuous outcomes. In turn, this results in more reliable and higher resolution outcomes for evaluating the effectiveness of drugs or other interventions. Aural Analytics’ technology can reveal the incremental changes that occur as a patient progresses from one point on a functional rating scale to the next. | $4.3M | Seed | Sep 05, 2019 |  |
| Virtuous Software | Virtuous Software is a customer relationship management software solution helping charities raise more money. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. | $3.5M | Series A | Apr 26, 2019 |  |
| Qwick | Qwick is the professional platform at the heart of the hospitality industry that matches experienced food and beverage freelancers with shifts in real time. Dedicated to serving those who serve us, Qwick empowers businesses to fill shifts and staff flexibly, while freelancers enjoy the freedom to make their own schedules and get paid the same day.As a growth-stage tech company, Qwick is rapidly expanding across the country and serves as a hospitality industry through-line. Qwick has earned multiple national recognitions, including “Great Place to Work” certification for two consecutive years, and is the 32nd fastest-growing company in the U.S. on the 2022 Inc. 5000 list. Learn more at qwick.com. | $3.5M | Seed | Mar 20, 2019 |  |

10 of 40 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Arizona Tech Investors](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/arizona-technology-investor-forum) — VC Fund, 18 deals together
- [UAVenture Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/uaventure-capital) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Album VC](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/album) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Album VC](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/peak-ventures) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/rise-of-the-rest) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Abell Foundation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/abell-foundation) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does Desert Angels invest in?

Desert Angels invests primarily in SaaS, Software and Health Care startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 40 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Desert Angels's check size?

Desert Angels typically joins rounds of $702k–$4.5M at Seed, $1.8M–$21M at Series A and $1.2M–$70M at Series B. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Desert Angels participates in.

### How do I contact Desert Angels?

Public channels for Desert Angels include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Desert Angels?

The team at Desert Angels includes Joann MacMaster (Chief Executive Officer; Member), Louise Downs Blain (Founder) and Michael Sember (Chair Desert Angels Screeing Panel). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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