Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Investment company’s new approach targets Scotland’s ‘amazing innovators’

The "space cluster" will increase connectivity between Orbex, who build rockets, and SpaceHub Sutherland which will launch them.
The "space cluster" will increase connectivity between Orbex, who build rockets, and SpaceHub Sutherland which will launch them.

An expansion of activity by investment company BGF is helping it support more Scottish innovators and emerging technology businesses, according to its representative in the north.

BGF, which formerly focused only on established businesses, is now also investing in earlier stage companies, with smaller revenues and high growth potential.

The company typically invests between £1million and £15m in businesses turning over between £2.5m-£100m.

And investor Keith Barclay highlighted its £4.5m backing of Forres-based rocket maker Orbex as an example of what it is achieving through its new approach.

Keith Barclay, of BGF.

BGF and Octopus Ventures joined existing investors in a £17m-plus funding round in December to support the roadmap to a first launch of the firm’s Prime rocket from the planned Space Hub Sutherland spaceport in the Highlands.

Mr Barclay, who is based in BGF’s Aberdeen office and covers the Highlands and Moray, said: “The thing about that investment that was really exciting was it demonstrated what we can do now.

“We started out as a growth capital investor, with clear parameters about what where we could invest.

“The reality is that, as soon as you start setting parameters you cut out a huge segment of the market and that is not the right thing to do, particularly in Scotland.

We don’t have that many £100m turnover businesses – but we’ve got a heck of a lot of good innovators that have got fantastic technology businesses that struggle to get the support they would if, say, they were based in the US. So we have now moved into that area.”

He continued: “Orbex is a great example of what we can do now, because it is a pre-revenue business, but with incredibly exciting technology and obviously high growth potential and that is a whole new area of the market that we are now able to invest in.”

Orbex intends to launch its Prime rocket from the planned spaceport in Sutherland.

Orbex has more than doubled its workforce since the investment by BGF and others last year, as well as submitting an outline planning application for a new  107,600 sq ft factory in Forres.

Mr Barclay described Scotland’s emerging space industry as a “hugely exciting” one, with which the rest of Europe is trying to catch up.

“It would be great to have such an advanced industry as that headquartered and based out of Scotland – and, with the weight of political support behind it, that is the plan,” he added.

‘Great spin-outs’ from universities

Also highlighting the potential of Scotland’s life sciences sector, he continued: “Scotland is just full of amazing innovators and there are some great spin-outs coming from the universities.

“We want to make sure that companies realise there is an option out there that allows them to take control of their businesses, but also allows them to deliver plans they thought might not be achievable.

We want to support the entrepreneurs to be in charge of their own businesses and keep growing them, rather than feel they have to sell them.”

Last year, BGF, formerly known as The Business Growth Fund, invested £37 million in more than a dozen growth businesses across Scotland and Northern Ireland during 2020.

This was nearly twice as much as the £20m total for the previous year, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2019 BGF invested £5m in care home provider Parklands Care Group, marking its first activity in the Highland and Moray areas.