Archangels gives £41 million boost to Scottish tech and life science scale-ups
“The early-stage deal market in 2026 looks set to remain challenging” – David Ovens, joint managing director
Archangels, the Edinburgh-based business angel syndicate, has leveraged more than £41 million of investment in some of Scotland’s most promising tech and life science scale-ups during 2025.
The £41.1m total, which represents a 50 per cent increase on 2024’s £27.3m, includes some £12.8m invested directly by Archangels’ members, alongside more than £28.3m of co-investment secured from partner investors.
The capital syndicate said it had also enjoyed another successful exit during the year, via the summer 2025 acquisition of Edinburgh-based wearable technology company Reactec by Ideagen, a specialist in compliance and risk management software. In the last four years alone, Archangels has returned in the region of £40m to its members through successful exits.
The past year has seen the syndicate support several high-growth Scottish tech and life science companies through significant funding rounds, with deals including CSignum, an underwater communications company, which completed a £6m Series A funding round to accelerate production of a device that can communicate wirelessly from water to air via patented electromagnetic field signalling - understood to be the first of its kind to be successfully developed worldwide.
Deep-tech semiconductor company Neuranics raised £6.1m in seed funding to accelerate its global growth and the commercial adoption of its magnetic sensing technology, while dental image technology specialist Calcivis raised £3m to support its successful US growth strategy.
Archangels, founded in 1992, said those investments demonstrated its continued commitment to backing Scotland’s most promising early-stage tech and life science companies, providing both capital and expertise to help them scale successfully.
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Joint managing director David Ovens said: “The level of activity we have seen from our members and partners in 2025 reflects the strength of Scotland’s scale-up ecosystem and the quality of Archangels’ portfolio. The growth ambition demonstrated by Scotland’s scale-ups continues to impress, and the near £30m of co-investment we’ve been able to leverage alongside our investments demonstrates the appeal of these companies among the wider investor community.
“Our exit this year from Reactec is a great example of how patient angel capital can deliver strong returns for our investors over longer investment cycles,” he added.
“The early-stage deal market in 2026 looks set to remain challenging but we’re confident that we’ll continue to see a healthy pipeline of innovative scale-ups hungry for funding to fuel their ambitions. Archangels will be ready to invest in the very best of those young tech and life science companies.”
Co-investors on deals during 2025 included Investment Fund for Scotland (managed by Maven Capital), the Scottish National Investment Bank, Old College Capital, Scottish Enterprise, Par Equity, Mercia and various Scottish angel syndicates.
The activity comes amid broader resilience in Scotland’s angel investment market despite challenging macro-economic conditions. Recent data from Angel Capital Scotland showed that while the number of angel investments fell slightly to 91 in the last year, from 94 in 2023-24, the total value of private capital committed increased from £100.6m to £106.4m, reflecting an increasing average deal size.
Archangels has around 120 members and a 12-strong board and executive team.
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