A Scottish technology business which received millions of pounds of funding from the Scottish National Investment Bank has collapsed, with all staff made redundant.
The administrators observed that since 2012 “the business is understood to have raised more than £35 million in investment from more than a dozen investors, funds and banks”.
Kenny Craig and Kevin Mapstone of BTG were appointed joint administrators of pureLiFi Limited by the directors of the company on August 31.
They noted the 14-year-old Scottish telecoms firm that devised an alternative wireless technology to WiFi and 5G entered administration “after failing to raise further development capital”.
The Scottish National Investment Bank told The Herald that its total commitment to pureLiFi is £15m and £14.7m of that has been drawn down.
It highlighted the fact that it had “made a provision for the potential failure of the company in its recent annual report and accounts as part of its unrealised losses”.
pureLiFi employed 42 staff at its head office in Leith, and was established in 2012 by Professor Harald Haas, who remained a director of the business.
The administrators said: “The business was at the leading edge of a new, super-secure light-based wireless communications technology, and had shifted into manufacturing products based on its own ‘LiFi’ technology and intellectual property.”
Thomas McKay, managing partner of BTG in Scotland and Northern Ireland, said: “The firm had received significant investment from numerous sources over the years, and despite creating products and generating revenue with some groundbreaking proprietary wireless technology, the business simply ran out of money before it could cross into profitability.
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“A strategic shift into manufacturing its own hardware, rather than licensing its globally patented technology to third-party manufacturers, was more costly than initially anticipated. By the end of Q2 2026 the business had simply run out of cash flow and was seeking sources of additional investment needed to cover losses until the business crossed into profitability.
“With no further investment forthcoming, the directors were left with no alternative than to appoint administrators to stop the company’s debts rising, and sadly that has led to the immediate redundancy of all 42 employees at the business.”
Mr McKay added: “Our team is working closely with those affected to help them access the financial entitlements and support available to them, including assistance from Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) and the Redundancy Payments Service.
“In addition to ensuring these employees receive the guidance and advice they need during this process, our priority is to identify any business assets and realise maximum value from their sale, especially the valuable intellectual property assets built up over the years of development, to the benefit of creditors.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish National Investment Bank said: “The bank has worked with pureLiFi and other stakeholders to review its options but, unfortunately, market challenges proved too great. Given these issues, the bank made a provision for the potential failure of the company in its recent annual report and accounts as part of its unrealised losses, meaning the losses we anticipate at the conclusion of the administration process have already been reported.
“As Scotland’s development bank, the bank was established to fill an identified gap in the Scottish funding landscape. Risk is inherent in all investment and we are mandated to take on higher risk than other commercial investors to drive societal impact and growth in the economy. Some failures are inevitable, and our strategy is based on the entire portfolio over the long term.”
The Scottish National Investment Bank last month reported a net loss of £138 million for the year to March, reflecting £65m of realised losses from the failure of three early investments and £85m of unrealised losses. It noted then that these unrealised losses arose from investment-value writedowns as well as anticipated losses relating to two further portfolio companies whose administration processes had not been completed by March 31.
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