Top deals made across Scotland during 2019

Jonathan Harris of Young Company Finance, which tracks early-stage high-growth enterprises in Scotland, lists the ten biggest deals made within the country during 2019

Faraday Grid, Edinburgh, Energy, £25m from Adam Neumann

The Faraday Grid is a system architecture for electricity distribution, providing a common platform that enables a wide variety of technologies and solutions to connect. In January, the company announced that Adam Neumann, co-founder and chief executive of New York-based office and workspace solutions company WeWork, had made a £25 million investment in the business.

Exscientia, Dundee, Life sciences, £20m from Celgene Corporation, GT Healthcare Capital Partners, Evotec AG

University of Dundee spinout Exscientia is a pioneer in the use of AI in drug discovery and design. Novel compounds are automatically designed and prioritised for synthesis by the company’s AI systems, which rapidly evolve compounds towards the desired candidate criteria for clinical development. In January, Exscientia announced that it had raised US$26 million in a Series B financing round from new investors Celgene Corporation and GT Healthcare Capital Partners, as well as existing investor Evotec AG.

MedAnnex, Edinburgh, Life sciences, £11m from Morningside Ventures, SIB

Edinburgh-based MedAnnex is developing therapies which modify the immune system at an earlier stage than existing therapies, reducing inflammation and disease severity. The company recently closed a £10m Series B investment, by Boston-based global life sciences investor Morningside Ventures, which was subsequently supplemented by a further £1m investment from the Scottish Investment Bank.

Frontrow Energy Technology Group, Aberdeen, Oil and gas, £10m from BGF

Oil and gas concern FrontRow Energy Technology Group has established a grouping of service companies that focus on well technology. UK venture capital (VC) investor BGF and the FrontRow management team originally invested £13m in the group in January 2017 to fund its expansion plans, and followed this up with a further £10m investment in January this year.

Paysend, Kirkcaldy, Fintech, £8.7m from GVA Capital, Plug and Play Ventures, Digital Space Ventures, Seedrs

Paysend is a money transfer platform which enables users to send funds from card to card, from 49 to more than 70 countries.

The company recently completed a fundraising round which combined investment from VCs with a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs.

The round was led by Silicon Valley-based GVA Capital, which invested £3.95m, while Plug and Play Ventures (another Silicon Valley VC), together with Luxembourg-based VC fund Digital Space Ventures, led the funding on Seedrs.

Intelligent Growth Solutions, Invergowrie, Agritech, £5.4m from AgFunder, S2G Ventures, SIB

Invergowrie-based Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) supplies vertical farming technology to indoor farms to enable the efficient production of food in any location around the world. In June, IGS secured a £5.4m Series A investment led by the US-based fund S2G Ventures, the most active agri-foodtech investor globally last year, together with online VC firm AgFunder (San Francisco), the second-most active, and the Scottish Investment Bank.

Money Dashboard, Edinburgh, Fintech, £4.6m from Crowdcube, Calculus Capital, SIB

Edinburgh fintech Money Dashboard’s app connects to more than 60 financial institutions, allowing users to see all of their accounts in one place.

The company recently completed a funding round of £4.6m, of which £3.9m was raised in a crowdfunding campaign on the Crowdcube platform, supplemented by separate investments by UK VC firm Calculus Capital and the Scottish Investment Bank.

DeepMatter, Glasgow, Software, £4m from SEGCP, IP Group, others

The platform produced byGlasgow-based DeepMatter transforms chemistry into code. It uses AI and machine learning to make better molecules and provide insights not previously available. The company, having secured investment from technology commercialisation investor IP Group, was able to attract co-investment from the Scottish-European Growth Co-Investment Programme, a partnership between the Scottish Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund.

Administrate, Edinburgh, Software, £3.8m from NVM Private Equity, Archangels, SIB

Administrate is a software-as-a-service training and learning management platform. A £3.78m investment round in February saw NVM Private Equity invest £2.25m, alongside existing investors business angel group Archangels and the Scottish Investment Bank.

Sustainable Marine Energy, Edinburgh, Renewable energy, £3.5m from Schottel Hydro, SIB

Edinburgh-based Sustainable Marine Energy has developed a tidal generation system, PLAT-I, currently deployed in Nova Scotia, Canada. German engineering company Schottel Hydro, a partner and previous investor – which last year merged its own tidal energy operations with those of Sustainable Marine Energy –contributed about £2.5m to a £3.5m investment round, with the Scottish Investment Bank contributing the remainder from the Scottish Government’s Energy Investment Fund.

This article first appeared in The Scotsman’s Deals 2019 supplement. A digital version can be found here.