Heavenly support from angels for Edinburgh tech firms

Two Edinburgh technology firms have received more than £1.3 million to help bring new imaging and microchip testing equipment to the market.

NCTech and Ateeda have raised £750,000 and £600,000 respectively from Archangels and financing partner Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), the funding arm of Scottish Enterprise. The deals follow a similar boost earlier this week for ZoneFox, taking the total invested by Archangels and SIB during the third quarter to £2m.

NCTech’s recently-launched spherical camera, iris360, is currently one of only two available that can publish panoramic images to Google Maps and Street View.

It automatically replicates complex and time-consuming processes for merging a series of still photos, allowing business owners to upload 360 degree images on Street View within minutes.

Chief executive Cameron Ure said NCTech’s funding partners have remained supportive as the firm has moved from iSTAR, its original panoramic imaging system for industrial use, into the personal consumer market.

“Our pedigree for producing 360 degree imaging systems for industrial use was the perfect starting point from which to build a prosumer grade product like iris360, and we have enjoyed working with Google to address this challenge,” Ure said.

“This funding will enable us to fulfil the order book for our camera, which we launched in September and are now starting to ship.”

Ateeda, which makes systems to cut the cost of testing increasingly complex microchips, will use its funding to bring its new “generATE” semiconductor module to market. David Hamilton, chief executive of Ateeda, said the product has already attracted “significant interest” from major players across the sector.