Design LED is Braveheart's Alpha investment

Published on Monday 24 July 2006 01:16

PERTH-based venture capitalist Braveheart Investments has broken its duck by selecting the first high-tech investment for its £2.5 million Alpha EIS Fund, The Scotsman can reveal.

The fund, established last December to buy into university spin-out companies, has invested 250,000 in Design LED Products, a Hillington Innovation Centre spin-out, which has pioneered a manufacturing process using light guides to create display products on flat screens.

Braveheart, which had to cancel its own listing on the Alternative Investment Market last month amid turbulent market conditions, is already an investor in the company through another of its funds.

"As the fund's first investment, we're very excited about Design LED Products," said Geoffrey Thomson, Braveheart's chief executive. "Having put it through our stringent due diligence process, we believe the company has the potential to do very well.

"Design LED is at a crucial stage in its development where it has proved its technology and the commercial viability of it.

"However, it needs the backing of investors such as ourselves to facilitate this transformation."

The Alpha EIS Fund was established to invest in a minimum of ten early-stage companies, with backing from Bank of Scotland, Scottish Enterprise and Braveheart's own clients.

Braveheart has a track record in buying into companies at an early stage and past winners have included Wolfson MicroElectronics and MicroEmissive Displays. Recently, it has arranged 5m funding to help Strathclyde University commercialise its technical products and has helped provide 1m funding for the gas detection firm Cascade Investments.