Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Edinburgh-based business angel investment syndicate, Archangels, led investments of £16.3m in promising Scottish start-up and early stage companies in 2020, topping its 2019 total of £13.4m by 22%.

C-Link, a property procurement start-up founded in 2015 by Paul Heming and Chris Barber, has successfully raised a six figure investment from private investors through investment non-profit, NorthInvest.

OKKO Health, a digital eye care company, has received investment from seven Henley Business Angels (HBA) members, contributing towards a total funding round of £900,000. The amount invested by HBA members was £145k, making it the largest amount invested since HBA’s establishment in 2016.

Innovative Scottish-based drug delivery company, Bio-Images Drug Delivery Limited (BDD), has positioned itself for rapid growth with a further round of investment in its GMP* manufacturing capabilities alongside strategic recruitment to the senior leadership team and the Board of Directors.  The £1.2m investment, has been led by Edinburgh-based business angel investment syndicate, Archangels, supported by Scottish Enterprise and BioCity Investments. 

Zokri, a company that provides a ‘software as a service’ platform for businesses to create and track objectives and key results, has received investment from a member of Henley Business Angels (HBA), contributing towards their latest funding round.

The software that Zokri have created is designed to help employees within a company align their strategy, goals and tasks. This helps allow for effective collaboration and for managers to support teams and the wider business.

The founders of London-based ecommerce startup aisle 3 have bounced back after being made redundant at the start of the pandemic to successfully raise £200,000 for their new ecommerce venture, supported by Angel Investment Network.

Green Angel Syndicate, the UK’s angel syndicate specialising in the fight against climate change and global warming, has launched the GAS Climate Change Fund, for EIS and SEIS investors.

C-Link, a property procurement start-up founded in 2015 by Paul Heming and Chris Barber, has successfully raised a six figure investment from private investors through investment non-profit, NorthInvest.

Envestors' Oliver Woolley discusses why angel investing should be considered by HNWs in a negative interest rate environment.

As we continue to deal with coronavirus restrictions, it is reported by Bank of Englandpolicymakers that the UK may be heading for negative interest rates . This would be a first in the bank’s 326-year history.

With interest rates already at 0.1%, central bank officials announced an additional £150bn stimulus package last week, in an attempt to boost consumer spending during the second wave of the pandemic.

Despite news of a vaccine, the BoE has taken the total stimulus to £895bn, as double-dip recession forecasts emerge.

Performance marketing technology provider Envolve Tech has successfully closed its latest funding round for a total of £720,000. The vast majority of investment was provided by private investors, including several prominent members of the performance marketing industry from the Thorium Technology Investor Network. Additional investment came from the female angel investment network Angel Academe.

Entrepreneur Alicia Navarro has closed a £1.2 million pre-seed investment round to fund her latest venture, Flown, a new online platform that aims to help knowledge workers achieve “deep work”. By matching them with inspiring properties setup for productive and ergonomic remote work,  as well as providing an array of interactive tools and resources, Flown will provide the ideal mental and physical spaces required for knowledge workers to get away from their day-to-day work environments to do their most productive and creative work.

Alphagreen, Europe’s leading marketplace for CBD and alternative healthcare products,has secured £1.1m of seed funding to help finance the roll out of new products and services alongside their expansion into the US. This is the largest amount raised to date in Europe for a CBD marketplace. Participants in the seed round included Stockholm-based Enexis AB, US cannabis fund West Creek Investments and angel investors, including Igor and Oleg Tikhturov.