Fife investment firm with famous globe-trotting cyclist on team hails new record

Eos Advisory, the Fife-based investment firm whose senior ranks include record-breaking endurance cyclist Mark Beaumont, has hailed a record year and boosted its portfolio and team.

Investee companies have risen to 18, with the latest investment taking place into Edinburgh-headquartered robotic rehabilitation specialist Bioliberty. In St Andrews-based Eos’ latest high-profile hire, Jill Arnold, former head of SIS Ventures, has joined the firm as investor relations director as it looks to accelerate growth. The move strengthens a leadership team that has also seen the appointment of Andrew Durkie as partner, and Andy Lothian and Sandy Kennedy as non-executive growth advisors in 2022.

Founded in 2014 and led by managing partner Andrew McNeill since 2018, the firm says strong deal flow and portfolio growth has led to an evolution of strategy. McNeill added: “Access to capital and access to expertise are the two main challenges for all early-stage companies. We remain seed-stage investors, but as our portfolio scales we are reacting by bringing in more later-stage growth capital and a network to scale outside of Scotland into larger commercial markets.”

Three additional investments were announced during the first quarter of 2023, including the £9.7 million Series A round in clinical-stage diagnostics company Dxcover, alongside Mercia Asset Management, Scottish Enterprise, the University of Strathclyde, SIS Ventures and Norcliffe Capital. Glasgow-headquartered food-tech scale-up Enough, which produces protein through fermenting fungi using renewable feedstocks, is one of Eos’ early portfolio companies, was originally a spinout from the University of Strathclyde, and has raised more than £60m of investment to date, including a Series B round of approximately £36m in 2021.