Welcome to the latest edition of the DIGIT Deal Roundup column, featuring some of the top investment, acquisition and expansion news stories from February, 2023.

Scotland’s digital technology sector saw a number of notable deals across the month, including significant raises from Forrit, Lothian Broadband Networks, and Heero.

Here are the latest deals for April, 2023.

Funding and Investments

Investing Women Angels

Scotland’s all-female angel investment group leads £195,000 equity investment into a UK-based supply chain platform for creatives – terrible*.

Investing Women Angels (IWA) which led the investment into London-based terrible*, supports artists of all creative industries in the UK, US and Europe by creating and sourcing merchandise to be sold online and at events.

The money, led by IWA with support from other undisclosed individual investors, will be used to improve the platform as well as drive further growth of the business into new sectors and across the US and other global markets.

“2023 has already seen a period of exciting growth and expansion, so we look forward to working with Pamela and IWA to ensure the rest of the year and beyond continues in the same vein,” said CEO of terrible*, Tersha Willis.

To read more, click here.

Forrit

Forrit CEO Peter Proud said he was “incredibly proud” to work with another Scottish organisation to achieve Forrit’s ambitions.

Native cloud platform specialists Forrit will expand its operation after receiving scale up support from the Scottish National Investment Bank.

The £5 million funding will allow the Edinburgh-headquartered technology developer to expand its workforce and target new markets.

Forrit CEO, Peter Proud, said: “We’ve experienced enormous growth as a company since we launched almost a decade ago – building a brilliant team who have in turn created an extremely strong product.

Read the full story here.

Higgs Centre for Innovation

Bioliberty, the Edinburgh-headquartered technology firm, has landed £2.2 million to help fund the development of its rehabilitative robotic glove, “Lifeglov.”

The funding round was led by Archangels, the Edinburgh-based, long-running business angel syndicate, with additional participation from the University of Edinburgh’s Old College Capital, St. Andrews-based Eos Advisory, and Hanna Capital SEZC.

Niki McKenzie, Joint Managing Director at Archangels said: “Bioliberty has developed a highly effective solution for helping patients with hand weakness, with the potential to improve the quality of life for millions worldwide.

Read about it here.

Lothian Broadband Networks 

Lothian Broadband Networks (LBN), the fibre firm helping to bridge the digital divide in rural Scotland, has received a further £20 million in funding from the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) to help with the targeted rollout of ultrafast broadband to rural premises and communities.

LBN targets investment in Scottish rural settlements and small towns that would otherwise be unlikely to get access to a gigabit-capable network. The company is currently building networks in the Highlands, Fife, and East Lothian — areas in notable need of fast and reliable broadband coverage. The company also has plans to extend the service into other areas of Scotland in the near-future.

“This new funding from the Bank takes our overall investment capacity for the year ahead up to £50m,” said Gavin Rodgers, CEO of Lothian Broadband Networks, on the news of the funding.

To read more, click here.

Heero Technologies 

Dundee-based cleantech software company Heero Technologies lands six-figure investment to scale and develop its app. 

The undisclosed amount of funding was led by TriCapital Syndicate LLP, with participation from Scottish Enterprise and Mint Ventures. The money will go towards developing and scaling Heero Technologies energy efficiency app and website, which the company says will unlock the next phase of their growth. 

On the use of the app, Moray Martin, Managing Partner at lead investor The TRICAPITAL Syndicate LLP, said: “There is a lot of noise currently around impact investing and the delivery of net zero. This intuitive technology brings focus to the ‘how to’ aspect by allowing us all, as individuals, to demonstrate, identify, measure and then implement our personal contribution.”

To read more, click here.

SMPnet

UK-based power grid optimisation startup SMPnet raises £1.1 million in seed funding led by Marathon Venture Capital, with participation from angel investors.

The funding is set to go towards bringing its power grid technology to markets in the US and Europe, as well as accelerating product development and boosting marketing and business development.

Alongside Marathon Venture Capital, the round also saw participation from former CEO of Scottish and Southern Energy – Ian Marchant. 

“We are utilising AI-based techniques to enable a net zero future in which power grids are operated dynamically and much closer to real-time while resolving stability issues and effectively ensuring high resilience and security of supply for a better planet,” said Anastasios Rousis, CEO and co-founder of SMPnet.

Read the full story here.

Bruntwood SciTech

Richard Butterfield, Relationship Director, real estate and housing at Lloyds Bank, said: “Bruntwood SciTech remains one of the UK’s true success stories – a business with sustainability and the industries of tomorrow running through its core.”

Bruntwood SciTech, the UK property provider specialising in the science and technology sector, has secured an additional £100m as part of its financing facilities from HSBC UK, Llyods Bank, NatWest, and Santander UK.

The funding will enable the Joint Venture between Bruntwood and Legal & General to continue with its expansion plans at pace to support the burgeoning demand from life science, tech and innovation businesses across the UK with infrastructure and specialist support.

Read more about it here.

SOLASTA Bio

SOLASTA Bio, the Glasgow-based agritech firm, has developed a new, more environmentally sustainable insecticide. 

Scottish agritech, SOLASTA Bio, who specialises in the next generation of green insecticides has secured a further round of investment, totalling £4 million to scale up the development of its nature-inspired pesticides.

Investment in this pre-Series A funding round was led by Yield Lab Europe, an agriteh impact VC fund, with other investors including:  Rubio Impact Ventures, Scottish Enterprise, Cavallo Ventures, SIS Ventures, UKI2S, and several private agritech investors. Funding includes grant support from Innovate UK’s Transforming Food Production competition and Scottish Enterprise. This latest funding round brings the total raised by SOLASTA Bio to £5.5m.

Read more about it here.

Dyneval

The firm secured the funding for their specialist semen analysis tool to better manage livestock tools. 

Dyneval, an Edinburgh-based agritech firm has secured a further £500,000 in funding for their semen analysis tool.

The portable tool is “easy-to-use” and requires no specific training to use – according to the company it produces the most accurate results on the market.

Tiffany Wood, co-founder of Dyneval, said: “We are very proud to secure this additional round of funding which will help to rapidly increase our production meaning we can help even more farmers across Scotland, the UK and beyond. Improving the efficiency of food production is more important than ever right now since the cost of living is rising, and it’s becoming more challenging for farmers to access grant funding.”

Read the full story here.

Deals and Acquisitions

xDesign

Scottish digital development partner, xDesign has announced its acquisition of innovation and design company CreateFuture for an undisclosed amount.

CreateFuture will relocate its team to xDesign’s headquarters located off Edinburgh’s Waterloo Place, taking xDesign’s overall headcount to over 450 people.

As part of the deal, CreateFuture will continue to operate independently, however, both companies will collaborate to deliver digital expertise and products for a combined client roster which will comprise of household names such as Penguin Random House, adidas, Tesco Bank, Money Saving Expert, Yorkshire Building Society and NatWest Group.

Euan Andrews, Founder and CEO of xDesign, said: “The acquisition of CreateFuture further augments our ability to design and deliver relevant digital solutions for clients. We work in an ever-changing industry which is dictated by the demands and needs of consumers.

Read more here.

Tech Nation

Tech Nation, the previously government backed startup support ecosystem, has been acquired by Founders Forum, a global community and group of businesses supporting entrepreneurs.

“We’re honoured to be inheriting this important mission and marrying our objectives with those of Tech Nation to preserve and expand the UK tech ecosystem,” Brent Hoberman CBE, Founders Forum (FF Group) co-founder and chair said. 

The transfer will see FF Group continue to execute against Tech Nation’s mission to empower tech entrepreneurs, scale innovation startups, and provide a united platform for UK tech founders.

Read more about it here.

The University of Glasgow

The team from Marine Biopolymers and The University of Glasgow’s School of Chemistry recently received funding from the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC).

The funding will be used to explore the use of tailored alginates – a naturally-occurring material found in brown seaweed – to help develop batteries using silicon as an alternative to the currently used graphite.

Professor Duncan Gregory, chair in Inorganic Materials at the University of Glasgow’s School of Chemistry, said: “Battery technology is going to play a hugely important role in our transition away from fossil fuels. Electric vehicles, renewable energy production, national grids and other critical elements of a net zero future will depend on having batteries that can store large amounts of energy in the smallest volumes possible and with extended lifetimes.

Phlo

Glasgow, UK. Phlo Technologies UK digital pharmacy leaders, have today announced their acquisition of the UK arm of US-based healthcare unicorn Truepill.

This is a landmark consolidation in the sector, and one of the most significant acquisition deals in the history of digital pharmacy in the UK.

Phlo are now the market leaders in the provision of B2B pharmacy services in the UK, where the market is on a strong post-pandemic upward trajectory. This acquisition follows Phlo’s £10m Series A raise, announced in February 2023.