Fife investment vehicle Eos Advisory secures multi-million-pound boost to help grow pioneering early-stage Scots firms

Fife-based impact investment firm Eos Advisory has netted new multi-million-pound funding it says will boost its ability to back some of Scotland’s “most exciting” pioneering firms.

Eos – whose senior team includes record-breaking endurance cyclist Mark Beaumont – has announced that British Business Investments, a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, is bankrolling it to the tune of £10 million via its Regional Angels Programme.

The funding will be allocated to invest alongside the Angel Syndicate and EIS Innovation Fund of St Andrews-based Eos, which explains that it backs companies underpinned by innovative science, engineering and technology, aimed at addressing societal and environmental challenges worldwide. It adds that its investment strategy focuses on early-stage equity investments across four key areas: disease diagnosis, prevention and treatment; energy security, climate change and pollution; food and water security, and; sustainability of industrial processes and infrastructure.

Andrew McNeill, managing partner at Eos, said: “The British Business Investments commitment will enhance our ability to back some of Scotland’s most exciting early-stage science and technology companies. We are already bringing this relationship to life, with recent investments into Bioliberty and Dxcover, and are in conversations about a strong pipeline of opportunities.”

From left: Eos partners Ana Stewart, Mark Beaumont, and Andrew Durkie. Picture: Alan Richardson Pix-AR.co.uk.

Dxcover said earlier this year that it had secured a new capital injection of almost £10m, which it deemed a “very significant funding milestone” that would catalyse the development of its pioneering blood test to detect cancer at an early stage. The sum encompassed a £7.5m funding round led by existing investors including Eos Advisory.

Andrew Durkie, partner at Eos, has now added: “We are pleased to be working with British Business Investments, to have their support, and to become one the latest Scottish investment firms on its Regional Angels Programme. The initiative enables Eos to extend our support for companies targeting global issues, and having a positive impact on the world.”

Eos, which was formed in 2014, also said it added to its portfolio and team following a record year of activity in 2022, and it now has about 20 investee companies, with its latest capital injection in Edinburgh-headquartered robotic rehabilitation specialist Bioliberty in the first quarter of this year. In its latest hire, it signed up Jill Arnold, former head of SIS Ventures, as investor relations director.

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Judith Hartley, chief executive of British Business Investments, said: “The Regional Angels Programme plays a vital role in developing the early-stage funding ecosystem across the UK Nations and Regions, bringing together finance, business experience and skills to support the development of high-growth smaller businesses. By investing alongside Eos’s Angel Syndicate and EIS Innovation Fund, this £10m commitment from British Business Investments will support early-stage science and technology companies in Scotland and across the UK.’’

Eos’s portfolio includes Bioliberty, Carcinotech, Chromacity, Cumulus Oncology, Dxcover, Nth, Green Bioactives, Enough, GM Flow, ILC Therapeutics, Naturbeads, Novosound, Penrhos Bio, RAB Microfluidics, Rooser, Waire Health, Wobble Genomics, and Xelect.

British Business Investments says it aims to improve access to alternative finance for smaller businesses across the whole of the UK, working with the market to provide funding through its delivery partners, while supporting the UK’s transition to a net-zero economy and generating a return for the UK taxpayer.