BGF’s Scotland and Northern Ireland operation has reported a solid performance during 2022 and said it has a strong pipeline of potential deals this year.

The business, based in Melville Street, Edinburgh, invested £42m into the economy and delivered a series of exits. 

Paddy Graham, head of the division, said Scottish deal flow has continued at “good pace” in 2022 on the back of a record 2021.

“It has been particularly pleasing to see investments such as Orbex placing Scotland in the centre of new and growing sectors as well as attracting co-investors from home and abroad,” he said.  

“Our exit activity ranged from sales to trade buyers and private equity through to management buy-outs. The breadth of these deals highlights BGF’s proactive yet flexible approach, where we work with management teams to get the right outcome for all stakeholders.

“Importantly, it also evidences a consistent track record of strong outcomes in Scotland over multiple years, which is testament to the quality of the portfolio and how it has grown and developed.  

“We believe that deal flow will continue in Scotland this year. Our strong 2023 pipeline is the result of the relationships we have been able to build with high quality management teams across the country.” 

Over the last three years the Scotland and Northern Ireland team has invested £150m in more than 60 companies.

Its portfolio in Scotland ranges from companies specialising in precision manufacturing, to healthcare and tech, through to luxury handbags favoured by royals, and one of the market leading D2C petfood brands.

Among those completed over the last 12 months was an £8m investment alongside Scottish National Investment Bank into biopharmaceutical company Elasmogen and £1.6m into aviation-focused med-tech firm Aiber, both led by female founders.

Other deals included an investment in Glasgow-based Scottish Dental Care (SDC) Group and £2.3m in Edinburgh data science consultancy Optima Partners. 

BGF provided follow-on funding for Forres space launch company Orbex as part of a £40m funding round, which brought in the Scottish National Investment Bank as co-investors alongside Jacobs, the Danish Green Future Fund, Verve Ventures and British entrepreneurs Phillip and James Chambers.

Exit activity grew in momentum, with six exits in Scotland in 2022, including a partial exit from Calnex, and full exits from CSN Care, Inoapps and Campion Homes. This translates into 10 completed Scottish exits in the last three years, generating a money multiple of more than 2x the original investment, with a total enterprise value of close to half a billion pounds.  

Since inception in 2011, BGF has provided £3 billion to more than 500 companies across the UK and Ireland. In 2022, BGF delivered 45 investments totalling £443m. The firm also recorded a record exit volume and value: realising 40 investments, delivering over £675m, and achieving a 2x MM and 22.5% IRR.