Par Equity has invested in a number of Scottish tech companies since 2008.

Edinburgh-based investment group Par Equity has experienced a record-breaking year, deploying over £17 million of capital between March 2020 and March 2021, up 48% on the same period in the previous year.

The group was lead investor on 75% of the transactions, with its portfolio of companies raising a further £26m from third party investors.

The company specialises in investing in young, high-growth technology companies in the North of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Par Equity focuses on companies that solve substantial scientific and engineering challenges using technologies such as artificial intelligence, advanced materials, nanotechnology, photonics, and quantum computing.

The current portfolio of 40 companies includes the likes of Current Health (Edinburgh and Boston), Cumulus (Belfast), Nova Pangea Technologies (Middlesbrough), Integrated Graphene (Stirling) and Novosound (Glasgow).

Paul Munn, Managing Partner at Par Equity, said: “We know what is needed to take a company from its infancy and turn it into a success story. Our role is enabling the ongoing provision of capital and expertise to these fast growth tech companies.

“In order to build global champions in the North of the UK, Par will be steadfast in our support of our portfolio”.

Par successfully led eight investments in March this year, including a £5m Series A round into Cyan Forensics. The company is an Edinburgh-based provider of technology to law enforcement agencies and social media companies, which identifies and blocks harmful digital content such as child pornography and terrorism.

For its latest investment, Par invested a further £3m into Current Health, as part of its £31m Series B funding. Par has supported Current Health through several rounds of funding, bringing its total investment in the group to over £7m since 2016.

Par has invested in 62 companies since it started in 2008. Collectively, those companies have raised £266m from investors and much of this investment has been used to build out the teams they need to succeed.

Andrew Noble, Partner at Par Equity, added: “We recognise the challenges that the pandemic has brought to many people across the UK, so it’s especially rewarding to be creating jobs through our investment activities. Employment within our portfolio companies increased from a total of 650 people to 885 in a year.”