Total investee companies are now up to 18, with Eos’s latest investment being Bioliberty, the Edinburgh-headquartered robotic rehabilitation specialist.

Three additional investments were also announced during Q1, including the £9.7 million Series A round in Dxcover, the clinical-stage diagnostics company.

The investment in Dxcover was made alongside Mercia Asset Management, Scottish Enterprise, the University of Strathclyde, SIS Ventures, and Norcliffe Capital.

Eos’s full portfolio, which now also features Bioliberty, includes 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.

In its latest team hire, Jill Arnold — the former Head of SIS Ventures — has joined the Scots investment firm as Investor Relations Director as the company looks to accelerate growth.

The recent hire strengthens a leadership team that also appointed Andrew Durkie as Partner, and Andy Lothian and Sandy Kennedy as Non-Executive Growth Advisors in 2022.

“From her time guiding RBS’s purpose-led strategy, to heading up the venture arm of Social Investment Scotland, Jill has demonstrated significant leadership and a highly-tuned understanding of the investment scene.

“The Eos team and I feel very fortunate to have her on board,” said Ana Stewart, Eos Partner and chair and author of the recently published Scottish commissioned Pathways: A New Approach for Women in Entrepreneurship review.

Founded in St Andrews in 2014 — and led by Managing Partner Andrew McNeill since 2018 — the firm points to strong deal flow and portfolio growth leading to the evolution of its strategy.

“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,” said McNeill.

“Eos specialises in knowledge-intensive science and technology that addresses key global issues, so our own evolution as a business is taking place in the context of individuals and family offices having more consideration of the purpose of their investments, alongside financial returns.”

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Eos invests in four key impact areas: disease diagnosis, prevention and treatment; energy security, climate change and pollution; food and water security; and sustainability of industrial processes and infrastructure.

The firm operates the Eos Syndicate, Eos EIS Innovation Fund, and Eos Venture Partnerships, as part of a wider strategy to support the funding of Scottish innovation both at and beyond seed stage.

Andrew McNeill added: “As our portfolio continues to mature, we are seeing value inflection points with a number of Series A, B and C rounds, as well as exit opportunities. Our metric for success is growth and exits, as opposed to amounts invested.

“However, it can be helpful to quantify our inputs, investing in the region of £15 million at seed stage on an annual basis. As our current portfolio moves up the gears, we are projecting that they will need in excess of £170m of growth capital requirements in the next 18 months.”