Two Scottish investor groups have reported record activity recently
A busy time for Par Equity
Par Equity recently announced that it had closed investments worth almost £5 million over a two-day spell.
The firm led five funding rounds worth a combined £4.85 million over two days at the end of December, partnering with the Scottish Investment Bank on all of them. Of the total amount raised, upwards of £2.5 million was directly co-ordinated by Par Equity through its investor network the Par Syndicate, the Par EIS fund, and the Scottish Investment Bank.
The investments were in the following companies:
Amiqus Resolution
Edinburgh (Seed Haus)
Amiqus is a software company that offers an encrypted online tool to automate anti-money laundering and compliance checks. This was a new investment for Par; Amiqus previously secured investment in October 2017 of an undisclosed amount from San-Fancisco based Fifth Era Fund (see YCF issue 228)
Par Equity partner Paul Munn said: “Our interest in Amiqus started as clients rather than investors. But there’s nothing like being a customer to see if something helps or not.
“From there, we appreciated that it already had significant commercial traction and a highly competent leadership team, so the investment made complete sense.”
The remaining investments were all follow-on rounds, three of them in hardware companies:
Adaptix
Oxford (with facilities at BioCity Scotland)
Adaptix has developed low dose low cost 3D X-ray imaging technology which provides better diagnostic information.
Greengage Lighting
Roslin Innovation Centre
Greengage makes wavelength-tunable lamps and sensors.
UniKLasers
Edinburgh
UniKLasers produces high-performance lasers used in sectors from film-making to life sciences.
Red61
Edinburgh
This ticketing system provider first custom built its technology to accommodate the 50,000 performances in 300 venues that take place during the Edinburgh Fringe.
Paul Munn observed that Par’s willingness to back hardware ventures distinguishes it from many other investors, adding “Hardware companies tend to be longer-term investments and often require ongoing funding.
“One of the dangers of smaller backers is that they run out of firepower, but we don’t, and our strong relationship with the Scottish Investment Bank means we can draw in extra resources to help these businesses gain traction.”
Kerry Sharp, director of the Scottish Investment Bank, added “We were involved in investing alongside Par Equity in all of these companies, two of which are new to our investment portfolio and strengthen both our investment relationship with Par and the number of exciting opportunities for companies.
Further details of these investments can be found in our Deals Monitor on p6, and subscribers to YCF can read previous articles about each of these investee companies in our online archive.
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