Archangels steps up investment in H1
Edinburgh-based business investment group Archangels has seen the amount of investment it has led in innovative Scottish tech and life sciences companies jump by about a third year on year.
The organisation – one of Scotland’s top investment syndicates – said that in the first half of 2021 it led investment of £12.4millioninsuchfirms,compared to £9.5m in the comparable period last year.
Archangels itself invested £7.3m between January and June 2021, a record for any sixmonth period, with co-investment of £3.1m from Scottish Enterprise and £2m from a range of other parties.
During the first half, Archangels invested in one new business and provided follow-on growth capital to seven existing portfolio companies. These included a first-time investment in Scottish biotech companybiocaptiva,theuniversity of Edinburgh spin-out that has developed a novel next-generation liquid biopsy technology device that could “revolutionise” the early diagnosis and monitoringofdifficult-to-detect cancers.
The business angel syndicate was also involved in a followon investment round in Edinburgh-based Administrate, the platform that equips organisations to plan, organise, deliver and scale training. Archangels said this investment round will be used to accelerate and capitaliseonadministrate’sgrowth.
Archangels’ joint MD David Ovenssaid:“whilethepandemic has had an inevitable impact onareasoftheeconomysuchas retail and hospitality, Scotland hasaworld-renownedtechand life sciences community that supports many thousands of high-quality jobs, and is making an increasingly important contribution to the economy.”