BGF has reported strong deal flow in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the first half of 2022 – close to £25 million has been invested into growing businesses.

Deals completed to-date in 2022 by BGF’s Scotland and Northern Ireland team come from a range of sectors, including technology, life sciences, manufacturing and healthcare, with the deals having a broad geographical spread across Scotland and two of the three businesses having female founders.

Since the turn of the year, the BGF’s biggest Scottish tech investment comes by way of £1.6 million investment in Inverness med-tech firm, Aiber.

Patrick Graham, BGF’s head of Scotland and Northern Ireland said: “After a record 2021, where BGF’s Scotland and Northern Ireland team invested almost £60 million, it is particularly pleasing to see this momentum continued through a diverse range of significant deals.

“As businesses adapt to higher inflation and the lingering aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, our ability to deploy capital at scale, and the overall strength of our investment model continues to attract the type of ambitious companies we seek to support.

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“As well as new investments, we also recorded four successful Scottish exits, which serve as a reminder of the important journey we go on with our portfolio companies as they scale.

“Each exit marked a mutually beneficial next step following positive work between BGF and the investee company. Looking ahead, the pipeline for the remainder of the year is strong, with more new deals and further positive exits anticipated.”

BGF’s existing portfolio companies in Scotland have also performed well in the first half of 2022. In particular, Dundee tech firm Waracle saw its sales increase by nearly £12 million.

This follows the release of a new study by Scottish Enterprise which shows that equity investment in Scottish businesses increased by 36% in 2021.

The 2021 Risk Capital Market report examines the performance of the Scottish equity investment market compared with the other nations and regions of the UK.

The latest edition of the study, which is based on Beauhurst data, shows that investment in Scottish businesses increased to £690 million in 2021, up from £509 million in the year previous.

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