£2.8m boost for three start-ups

Published on 11/11/2012 00:00

SCOTLAND’S biggest provider of business angel funding, Archangel Informal Investment, has pumped £2.8 million into three more start-up companies, Blackford Analysis, Calcivis and NC Tech. It brings total backing by Archangels’ syndicate of investors this year to £7.5m.

Blackford is a software developer targeting the medical sector and is a spin-out of Edinburgh University.

The company has also attracted Scottish Enterprise seed funding and has received £800,000 from Archangels to expand in the UK and US.

Archangels has provided £1.2m to Edinburgh BioQuarter-based Calcivis to help with its dental technology, which was developed by co-founders Chris Longbottom and Nigel Pitts at Dundee university.

Camera design and manufacturing company NC Tech has received £800,000.

The company, co-founded by Neil Tocher and Cameron Ure, has developed the world’s first fully automatic 360 degree camera – the 
iSTAR.

The full product launch of the Edinburgh-based firm’s revolutionary camera has been highly anticipated and is expected to revolutionise photographic processes across a number of sectors including military, law enforcement and construction.

John Waddell, chief executive of Archangels, said: “These are exciting times for Scottish start-ups.”