Biotech boom - Edinburgh's Archangels helps propel Scottish start-ups with £27.3 million investments

Archangels, the Edinburgh-based business angel syndicate, has led more than £27 million of investment into some of Scotland’s most promising tech and life science companies after a “very busy and successful year”.

Of the £27.3m of investment completed during 2024, £13.8m of that total came directly from Archangels’ own members, a small increase on their investment activity in 2023 (£13.4m). The syndicate also returned some £12.5m to investors through exit related income and dividends.

The past year saw Archangels add Bead BioPharma to its portfolio through an oversubscribed £900,000 funding round. The syndicate also made several key follow-on investments to support the scaling of its portfolio companies, including three major series A funding rounds together totalling some £18m, including biotech business Calcivis, which secured £5m to roll-out its cutting-edge dental technology, nanomaterial producer iGii, which raised £8.8m to accelerate growth and scale manufacturing capability, and training software management platform Administrate, which raised just over £3m to expand its market reach.

Founded in 1992, Archangels is a business angel syndicate investing in early-stage Scottish life sciences and technology companies. Pictured are Niki McKenzie, David Ovens, Dan McKiddie, Sarah Hardy and Shaolei McKie.

Other external funding rounds included biotech company Cytomos, which recently raised £5m to scale up production of its cell analysis technology, and drug formulation and clinical trials outfit BDD Pharma, which raised £2m to support its expansion plans and open a new lab facility.

Co-investors on deals during 2024 included Investment Fund for Scotland (managed by Maven Capital), the Scottish National Investment Bank, Old College Capital, Scottish Enterprise, Par Equity, Mercia and various other Scottish angel syndicates.

David Ovens, joint managing director at Archangels, said: “In line with previous years, 2024 has proved to be another very busy and successful year for Archangels. Despite operating within a very difficult investment environment, we are particularly pleased to have participated in three major Series A funding rounds for portfolio companies, all of which are now well set to achieve their scaling ambitions.

“While the M&A [mergers and acquisitions] market for early-stage companies, just like the investment environment, has remained challenging, there are signs heading into 2025 that activity is picking up.”

Edinburgh-based biotech Cytomos was one of the syndicate’s most recent successes. Its oversubscribed funding round in November was led by Archangels with participation from Old College Capital, Scottish Enterprise and the British Business Bank. The business employs 21 people, largely based at its new premises in Roslin, and expects to add a further four staff over the next year as it continues to scale operations.

Fresh investment will allow the firm to drive sales of its first commercial product, Celledonia, built on its cell-analysis technology platform AuraCyt, which is already said to be generating “significant market traction”. Celledonia is a cell analyser that aims to significantly enhance single-cell analysis, potentially transforming biological drug discovery, development processes and biologics manufacturing.

David Rigterink, chief executive at Cytomos, said: “Successfully raising £5m within a difficult market has been a huge boost for the business. The result is testament to the team’s hard work in delivering our first commercial product with international early adopters.”

Drug discovery needs this technology - now Scottish firm is backed with £5 million to deliver it