Par Equity, the Edinburgh-based investment manager that specialises in early-stage technology businesses with high growth potential, increased its new investment activity to a record £12.4m in 2020.
Despite the challenges of a year dominated by Covid-19, the company also continued its run of successful exits, which means it has now returned cash to investors every year since 2013.
The year closed with Par having completed 35 investment transactions in 12 months, up from a previous high in 2019.
Additions to the portfolio included the likes of SICCAR, an IT technology company that enables organisations to securely exchange information, for instance in a healthcare setting, and Integrated Graphene, an advanced materials business which has developed and patented a way to mass manufacture 3D graphene at low cost.
READ MORE: Scots laser firm gears up for quantum push
The year also included the announcement of a £75m investment partnership with British Business Investments (BBI), which saw Par becoming part of the Regional Angel Programme and making its first investment in EC-OG, a specialist in subsea clean energy, located in Aberdeen.
The BBI deal complements Par’s longstanding relationship with the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) for whom it is one of the largest and most active co-investors.
These investments bring the total number of companies backed by Par Equity to over 60, with more than 20 now exited.
Among the exits in the last twelve months was Symphonic, originally a spin-out from Edinburgh Napier University. The software company, which enables organisations to control access to confidential information, was sold to a US market leader in internet security, Ping Identity. The sale achieved a blended 8.3x return across two rounds of investment for the Par EIS Fund.
Another exit, DeltaDNA, which originally took place in 2019, has continued to deliver value to investors in the form of paper stock in the acquirer, NYSE listed Unity Technologies. The sale of Delta DNA, which helps computer gaming developers analyse and personalise the experiences of players in real time, is currently sitting on a 17.2x return for Par investors.
With these very encouraging exits, Par is increasing its profile and reputation across the UK as one of the “go to” VCs, particularly for tech companies in the North of the UK. At the end of 2020, Par was recognised as a one of the top Growth Investors in the UK at the Growth Investor Awards in London and scooped the runner-up prize for the best EIS Fund Manager of the Year category at the EIS Association awards, also in London.
Andrew Noble, partner at Par Equity, said: “Another record year of investment activity means that investors are continuing to put their faith in us as a manager, and young tech companies are getting the much-needed capital to grow their companies. This is clearly good news, but what’s more important is that the companies we back are growing fast, hiring top talent, and eventually securing a successful return for all shareholders. In that regard, 2020 has been a huge success as we approach £100m of realisations for our investors.”
Paul Munn, managing partner at Par Equity said: “Par Equity is absolutely focused on finding and supporting the best new technology companies in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England. In 2020 we strengthened our business model adding new hires and launching new initiatives such as our head-hunter panel, university partnerships and our regional investor network programmes. In doing so we have set a strong foundation for growth in 2021.”
Firms face higher red tape hurdle post-Brexit
As usual during the holiday season I finally managed to read a couple of books and catch up on programmes I had been meaning to watch for a while including a great documentary directed and starring Michael Caine on the Swinging Sixties and the fallout in the early Seventies.
Sign up
You can now have the bulletin and the top business news stories sent direct to your email inbox twice-daily, and Business Week for the weekly round-up on Sunday:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/my/account/register/
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel