The Scottish National Investment Bank has released its second full year accounts, detailing its investment history since it was established little over two years ago.

Since its establishment, the Bank has committed over £445 million in long-term strategic investment. A further £703m has been attracted in from other sources, ensuring the Scottish economy has benefitted from well over £1.3bn of support.

The Bank’s activity has spanned across a range of businesses and projects, including net-zero, biotechnology, broadband connectivity, and improving communities or harnessing innovation.

Over the course of its last financial year, the Bank has seen its portfolio nearly double, from 14 to 27 investments.

Companies and projects such as pureLiFi, Elasmogen, North Star Renewable and Orbex, have all been backed by the Bank, each of which delivered against one or more of the Bank’s missions.

The Scottish National Investment Bank has also helped scale some of Scotland’s rising tech businesses.

Back in April, the company provided £5m in funding to help Scottish-cloud platform company Forrit scale up their operations.

Verlume, a clean energy technology developer, also received £7.2m in funds as part of the Bank’s mission to help a smooth transition to net-zero carbon emissions.

Furthering it’s net-zero goals, the Bank also invested £5m in Utopi, a Glasgow-based energy consumption monitoring technology company which produces real time environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data.

To advance healthtech, PneumoWave, a company which developed a remote patient monitoring technology for respiratory detection, received £5.2m from the bank earlier this year as well.

The jobs supported by investee businesses have reached 2,300 and 100% of businesses have committed to Fair Work First Principles.

Chief Executive Officer Al Denholm said: “These results show strong progress for The Bank with revenue increasing 463% to £10.7 million over the past 12 months, while there was a 55.5% increase in Committed Investment of £220.7 million.”

“I believe we can become one of the most respected impact investors in the industry, generating social, environmental and economic returns for the people of Scotland. I look forward to working with the team and our many stakeholders, on delivering the Bank’s missions on behalf of the people of Scotland.”

While delivering impact and commercial returns from its investments, as a development bank it also adopts a higher risk appetite than other investors. Risk is based on the measured judgement of the investment team and is considered throughout the investment decision making process.

An unrealised loss of £17.8 million has been recognised in the financial year, the majority relates to adjustments which reflect the underlying performance of investee companies. This includes a £4.5m unrealised loss recognised on Circularity Scotland Limited for the financial year ending 31 March 2023.

Recommended reading

• Scottish National Investment Bank Funds Utopi Emissions Tech
• Scottish National Investment Bank Making “Clear Progress” Despite Losses
• Scottish National Investment Bank Marks Launch with £12.5m Investment

The Bank is still in early stages, being only 2 years old. As a patient capital investor, the Bank will look at opportunities and returns over the long term and while it is inevitable that not all of our investments will deliver a positive return, with this long-term view, fluctuation is expected within the portfolio.

“Our capacity as an organisation to deliver insight, investment and impact has grown significantly,” Chairman Willie Watt said.

“As an institution we are moving out of our start-up phase and are becoming an increasingly established organisation, delivering solidly against our business plans.

“The overall economic climate has been challenging for companies seeking to raise investment.

“As a development bank with a particular focus on long-term and strategic investment, we have worked to support innovative, growth-oriented businesses to navigate these conditions while delivering on their ambitious business strategies.

“Despite incurring our first investment loss after the end of this financial year, we continue to work towards a positive net return across our portfolio as a whole, demonstrating both responsible and productive stewardship of public capital.”