Investment of £3.7m in three ambitious Scottish companies by Archangels and SIB

The prominent business angel syndicate, based in Edinburgh, has been at the forefront of early stage investing in Scotland for more than two decades, alongside Scottish Enterprise’s investment arm, SIB.

All three businesses – Calcivis, NetThings and Reactec – have received support from Archangels from early stage and the capital raised will enable each entrepreneurial initiative to fund further growth. Around 70 of Archangels’ investor members chose to participate in these funding rounds.

Calcivis, located at Edinburgh’s Bioquarter, has this week received an additional investment of £2.6m to fund further development of its dental imaging system – a sophisticated medical device designed to transform the assessment and management of tooth decay by providing a real-time assessment that is tailored and evidence based. This investment has also helped Calcivis secure a further £2m grant from the European Horizon 2020 SME (small to medium enterprise) instrument programme.

Calcivis Chief Executive, Adam Christie, said: “Having now run our first clinical study of the device, this funding will enable us to finalise the design of our first commercial product then test launch it in one European country, most likely the UK, and to complete the US regulatory process. I’ve worked with Archangels since 2007 and I’ve always found them to be very engaged partners in the whole process of creating successful companies.”

Edinburgh-based NetThings has developed a platform that simplifies the connecting and controlling of devices over the internet, for businesses and consumers, providing insight and energy management with the aim of helping people to start managing and controlling costs and energy usage. The company plans to use its additional funding of £700,000 to expand its offering from the domestic to the SME market.

NetThings’ Chief Executive, George McGhee, said: “We are launching a new product range into the SME market in the second half of 2015 and this additional funding was essential to the completion of the development of the products and to taking them to market. It allowed us to invest in some key software skills and to add more experience to the commercial side of the business. This will enable our objective of achieving breakeven by the end of this year.”

“I have the greatest respect for the role both Archangels and Scottish Enterprise play in backing early stage companies in Scotland. They have been front and centre in supporting the development of the NetThings business.”

Edinburgh’s Reactec, has developed a unique solution to help companies whose employees use heavy tools to monitor and analyse their exposure to potentially harmful hand and arm vibration (HAV). With 50% of reported occupational industrial diseases being HAVS related, their unique HAVMETER, combined with a newly released cloud-based reporting platform, provides a solution to analyse and help reduce exposure to employees in a wide range of industry sectors. Since launching in 2001, Reactec has already grown to protect around 30,000 customer employees.

Jacqui McLaughlin, Reactec’s Chief Executive, said: “This £400,000 of funding will allow us to invest in our business development capability, creating three roles within Reactec and improving our routes to market. We also plan to upgrade the technology in our product to further advance our competitive edge in a market place, which is attracting new entrants.

“Archangels have been a fantastic, supportive shareholder. They are savvy to the need for us to keep up with the latest technological advances and they understand that it’s not just about selling products, but the strategy behind that.”

Andy Laing, Investment Executive at Archangels, said: “These are great examples of growing Scottish businesses who have the potential to compete on a world stage and whose ideas, without early stage investment and ongoing support, would never have been realised. Scotland needs more enterprises like these and at Archangels we’re happy to support them.”

Kerry Sharp, Head of Scottish Investment Bank, said: “It’s always great to see companies with an entrepreneurial mindset prosper and grow with support and investment. Working together in partnerships is the foundation of our operating model. The integrated approach of investment and support here in Scotland is building a track record of success stories.”