Business angel investment tops record £50 million in 2022 - Linc Scotland

Business angels last year invested more than £50 million in young companies in Scotland, marking a new record.

Linc Scotland, the business angel association, said the total investment by its members marked an increase of 20 per cent on the amount invested in 2021, while the figure was 86 per cent up on the 2019 total. The total value, including all investors, of the deals in which the groups invested in 2022 amounted to £117.4m, with co-investment coming from other private sector investors (£33.5m) and public sector agencies, mainly Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish National Investment Bank (together £33.8m).

Total deal sizes are usually influenced by a small number of high value investments by venture capital (VC) firms or other types of investor joining the angel groups in deals, the value of which fluctuates sharply from year to year.

David Grahame, Linc’s executive director, said: “Business angels necessarily take a long-term view rather than overreacting to current events, and it is good to see our members actually further increasing their commitment to supporting Scotland’s most exciting young companies. At the same time the increasing range of institutional and other co-investors is an encouraging sign of a maturing ecosystem.”

Linc said the supply of risk capital to the Scottish market remains strong. KPMG recently reported a total of £705m in venture capital investment in Scottish companies in 2022, with the largest deal quoted being £40.4m, led by the Scottish National Investment Bank. Linc said Scotland’s business angels were playing a major role in this sector.