Archangels, the business angel syndicate, increased its funding support for Scottish early stage business in 2012, making it Scotland’s largest provider of business angel funding for the year.
Last year, Archangels – which was established by Edinburgh-based entrepreneurs Mike Rutterford and Barry Sealey in October 1992 – invested GBP9.5m in new business (up from GBP8.75m in 2011), with GBP5.73m coming from the Archangels themselves (up from GBP4.88m in 2011) and the remainder coming from partners, including the Scottish Investment Bank which invested GBP2.78m (from the Co-Investment Fund and Venture Fund).
Throughout 2012 Archangels completed three new investments – Calcivis (GBP800,000 of a GBP1.2m commitment), Blackford Analysis (GBP800,000), a small initial round of funding in OxyGen (GBP80,000) and 16 follow-on rounds of investment, including Semiconductor company ATEEDA (GBP1m).
There was one exit over the course of the year – Glasgow-based biotechnology company Vitrology which was sold to Swiss group SGS in May 2012.
More recently, in February 2013, Archangels teamed up with Conoco Philips Ventures, Statoil Ventures and the Scottish Venture Fund to provide GBP3.25m to transform Edinburgh’s LUX Assure from a technology development business to a service provider for the oil and gas industry.
Stuart Paul, joint managing director of the Asia Pacific and global emerging market equity team at First State Investments, also joined the Archangels board in 2012.
John Waddell, chief executive of Archangels, says: “We’re seeing more cash being invested in early stage companies throughout Scotland and the rest of the UK, and we’re continuing to work with a number of interesting companies.
“2012 was the 20th anniversary year of Archangels, and not only have we been able to support exciting new businesses but we recently won a special award for services to the Scottish life sciences industry from Life Sciences Scotland, and have also added to our core group of investors.
“The Archangels team has had a successful year and will continue to work hard to provide support as well as finance to the companies in our portfolio.”
