Scottish Enterprise seals top deal at prestigious awards
Scottish Enterprise’s investment team has been honoured as Scotland’s leading Dealmaking Team of the Year in the Scottish Business Insider Deals and Dealmaker Awards for 2009.
The Deal and Dealmakers Awards, which took place in Glasgow last night (02 September 2009), recognise and reward the valuable corporate finance expertise which exists in Scotland and the significant contribution it makes to the country’s economy.
Nominated in two separate categories, the Scottish Enterprise team lifted the coveted Dealmaking Team of the Year award which recognises a whole team that has been involved in Scotland's ground breaking deals.
The accolade follows a record-breaking year for the public sector organisation, which saw its investments increase by 91% compared with the previous year against the backdrop of a global banking crisis.
Commenting on the award, Gerard Kelly, director of investment at Scottish Enterprise, said: “This is a superb achievement for Scottish Enterprise. We are very honoured to be recognised as Dealmaking Team of the Year, especially when competing against such a high calibre of other nominees.
“It’s been a difficult year for the industry, but we’ve seen a tremendous appetite for investment. We have been resolutely focused on ensuring that our customers have access to the right support to weather the economic storm and as a result have had a record year both in terms of the number of deals and the overall value of investments we have supported.
“In the next twelve months, we will continue to seek new investor partners so that we can broaden and deepen the investor pool available to young, high-growth Scottish companies seeking to raise risk capital.”
Scottish Enterprise Investments (SEI) was established in 2003 to address market failure in the supply of risk capital to early stage companies with high growth capital and create, grow and retain companies of scale in Scotland.
The 25 strong team has completed more than 130 deals in the last twelve months investing over £29m which in turn leveraged almost £64m of investment from the private sector. Major deals included a £6.1m equity funding package for life sciences company, Forth Photonics Ltd and a £2m deal alongside co-investment partner Pentech Ventures in software company Maxymiser Ltd.
SEI’s joined-up investment approach offers risk capital investment for businesses at various stages of growth, through the Scottish Seed Fund, the Scottish Co-investment Fund and the Scottish Venture Fund. Each of these funds adopts an innovative co-investment / shared risk intervention model to encourage more private investors and funding into Scottish early stage companies.
Scottish Seed Fund
The Scottish Seed Fund provides start-up equity funding from £20,000 to £100,000 to early-stage businesses keen to grow.
Scottish Co-Investment Fund
The Scottish Co-Investment Fund is a £67 million equity investment fund. Its mission is to invest early-stage funding of £100,000 to £1,000,000 in company finance deals of up to £2 million.
Scottish Venture Fund
The Scottish Venture Fund is a £50 million equity investment fund set up. Its mission is to invest early-stage funding of £500,000 to £2,000,000 in company finance deals of up to £10 million.