The wider economic impact of the investment, mentoring and management support activities of the Scottish angel investing group, Archangel Investors, is to be explored in a new study.
Archangels, which has been investing in early stage companies since 1992, has commissioned the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at Strathclyde Business School to carry out the study. Dr Niall MacKenzie and Margaret Coughtrie will examine the economic impact of Archangels and the companies in which it has invested.
Specifically, the study will examine: job creation; revenue generation; sales revenues; profitability; and overall gross value added. The study’s findings are expected to be published in the summer of 2015.
Archangels was established by entrepreneurs, Mike Rutterford and Barry Sealey, in 1992 following their successful investment in what was to become Optos plc upon its flotation in 2006. Optos recently agreed to be acquired by Japanese group, Nikon, for £259m.
Since its inception, Archangels whose business model is built on investors pooling their resources to support Scottish businesses principally in the high tech and life sciences sectors, has supported a total of 80 companies – many with multiple rounds of investment funding. Archangels now has over 70 investor members.
David Ovens, Chief Operating Officer at Archangels, said:
“We know how much has been invested over the last 23 years and how much has been returned to investors, but that’s only part of the story. To truly understand the impact that Archangels has had, we need to dig deeper. How many jobs have been created? How much profit has been generated? How successful have our invested companies been? What have they contributed to the Scottish economy? These are the real measures of success and we’re keen to know the answers.”
Dr Niall MacKenzie of the University of Strathclyde said:
“Early stage investment is of fundamental importance to helping companies grow and realise their potential. To this end Archangels have played a critical role in developing some of Scotland’s brightest companies and entrepreneurial culture and the Hunter Centre are delighted to engage with them on such an important subject. We have developed an innovative framework of analysis which captures both the investment process and its impacts. We are looking forward to using this to assess the impact Archangels have had, and will no doubt continue to have in the future, on Scottish companies and beyond.”
Further enquiries:
Callum Spreng
Spreng & Co Mob: 07803 970103
Email: callum@sprengandco.com
