Archangels and SIB invest £3.3 million in three Scottish companies

Archangels, the prominent business angel syndicate which has been at the forefront of early stage investing in Scotland for more than two decades, announces that, alongside Scottish Enterprise’s investment arm, Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), it has completed additional rounds of funding totalling over £3.3m for three growing Scottish businesses.

All three businesses are now competing on a global stage and have received support from Archangels from early stage. The capital raised will enable all three Scottish entrepreneurial initiatives to fund further growth.

Around 60 of Archangels’ investor members chose to participate in these funding rounds.

PowerPhotonic Ltd which, from its Dalgety Bay base, designs, manufactures and supplies high value optics that manipulate the light from lasers for customers in a range of sectors from defence to the medical sector, has this week received a further £2m of investment from Archangels and SIB. The business will use the additional funding to increase its product development, manufacturing and sales & marketing capabilities.

Livingston-based Bloxx Ltd, whose web and email filtering software is used by schools, colleges and companies across Europe and the US, has received a further £800,000 of capital. Bloxx plans to revamp its sales operation to take advantage of the growth in demand for real time filtering of content to ensure that customers can effectively block inappropriate internet and email content.

Administrate is based in Edinburgh and provides online training management software that automates the workflow required to deliver education. The company has received a further £577,000 of investment in this most recent round and will use the funds to support further product development, customer service, sales and marketing.

John Waddell, Chief Executive of Archangels, said:
“Each of these businesses is world class in its own field and they are all excellent examples of the types of Scottish enterprises that Archangels is uniquely positioned to support. They simply couldn’t have developed to the stage that they have today without Archangels and we’re proud of what we have achieved together with all three businesses.”

Dr Roy McBride, Chief Executive of Power Photonic, said:
“We’ve already proved that we can produce the highest quality optics for laser applications in a number of sectors here in Europe, in the US and in Asia Pacific. This new investment in the business will accelerate our growth plans, allowing us to take on additional staff to expand our product development, manufacturing and sales activities.”

Charles Sweeney, Chief Executive of Bloxx, said:
“There are 100 new websites launched every minute across the world and our real time web filtering lets schools, colleges and businesses protect themselves and their people from the less savoury content that they may otherwise be exposed to. This investment from Archangels allows us to take our sales operation in the UK and USA to the next level.”

John Peebles, CEO of Administrate, said:
“We were delighted to reach break-even last year and as we grew we identified key areas where investment could help us accelerate our growth. Appointments in sales, marketing, product development and customer service will directly translate to helping our clients save time and deliver better education. With customers on six continents, we’re proud to be located and creating jobs in Scotland, and couldn’t be where we are today without our team or our investors.”

Kerry Sharp, Head of the Scottish Investment Bank, said:
“We are pleased to be able to invest alongside our longstanding co-investment partner, Archangels, in these three companies. All three of these businesses are great examples of forward thinking, innovative, Scottish companies that are actively competing at an international level. We look forward to continuing our relationship with them as they accelerate their growth plans with these most recent rounds of investment.”