Record spend by business angels in 2011

Deputy Business Editor

Monday 13 February 2012

BUSINESS angels in Scotland made a record £26.4 million investment into early-stage companies last year.

Custom byline text:

Greig Cameron

New data from trade body LINC Scotland showed there was a 10.23% rise on 2010's £23.95m figure.

Across 2011 there were 78 deals involving 56 businesses which was lower than the 105 deals into 65 companies the year before.

However, the average size of the sum invested rose 47.2% to £338,462.The 16% put into new businesses was comparable to the 15% seen in 2010.Members of LINC Scotland spent £12.18m with a further £14.22m coming from other private investors with the public sector, mainly the Scottish Co-Investment Fund and Scottish Seed Fund, saw their contributions fall 6% from £8.89m to £8.35m.David Grahame, chief executive of LINC Scotland, said: "2011 saw a substantial increase in the size of the investments being made in Scottish businesses, with investors showing faith in early-stage companies. "The fourth quarter of 2011 was particularly strong, due to two large deals completed at Braveheart and Alida Capital."Although 2010 was a record year for the number of investments made, this included an unusually large volume of smaller deals, and appears to have been an anomaly within the overall pattern of recent years."Mr Grahame is hopeful his members and other business angels can increase funding amounts again in 2012 particularly to firms which have not sought investment before.He added: "We expect to see this upward trend continue throughout 2012 due to the new tax reliefs being introduced under the Government's Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme."

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Record spend by business angels in 2011

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED