Edinburgh's Archangels syndicate takes top spot

Archangels, the Edinburgh-based business angel syndicate, has received a top accolade following a record year of investment.

Sarah Hardy, chief investment officer; David Ovens, chief operating officer; Niki McKenzie, investment director. Picture: Graeme Hunter

The investment group has been recognised as the UK’s “lead angel investment syndicate of the year” by the UK Business Angels Association.

It comes on the back of a year during which it led with £11.2 million of investment from its own members, supplemented by a further £6.8m of cash from co-investors, including the Scottish Investment Bank – the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise.

The largest single investment in 2017 was £3.6m in ZoneFox, the Scottish cyber security success story. The smallest seed funding was £750,000, in PhysioMedics.

David Ovens, Archangels’ chief operating officer, said: “Business angel investment is a vital support network for the UK’s fledgling technology and life sciences innovators and we’re proud of the role we have played.”