A SCOTTISH "angel investor" has scooped a top European award at an international conference.
Nelson Gray, who has invested in a range of companies, including Glasgow University spin-off Antoxis, was named business angel of the year at the European Business Angel Network conference in the Netherlands.
The Rosslyn-based businessman launched
his career in the very early stages of angel investment in the 1990s.
Unlike venture capitalists, who usually deal with larger investments, business angels – such as Perth-based group Braveheart – invest their own money, in relatively small-scale deals, in promising start-up companies, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity.
The angels make money, not from managing the process of investment and getting fees out of it but from the investments themselves.
Gray said: "I sold my own business in about 1993 and I wandered around looking for things to do and met with people who essentially created this industry."
He is now a member of angel investment groups such as Braveheart, which floated on London's junior stock market in 2007, but also invests in start-up firms as an independent investor.
Gray, an adviser to LINC Scotland, the Scottish angel capital association, has developed and presents seminars for the organisation on "Introduction to being a Business Angel" and also a "Business Angel Masterclass", to improve returns achieved by of business angel investing.
His most recent deal, a £225,000 investment into Edinburgh University medical school's first spin-off company, Immunosolv, with a trio of fellow Scottish investors, is due to be completed this week. In the past year, he has also invested in University of Bath spin-out Atlas Genetics and Antoxis, a spin-out from the Rowett Research Institute and the University of Glasgow, which was formed to develop novel treatments for conditions such as strokes, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.
He said: "It is not vast sums of money, but I tend to do two kinds of deals – ones where I am heavily involved in the company and ones where I am just an investor. This is one I will be involved in."
He added: "I want people to realise that Scotland is a great place to come and do business."
But Gray, who has been involved in 21 angel investments throughout his career, admits that not all have been successful. He explained: "An American counterpart of mine put it well when he said that we shouldn't be trying to pick winners, we should just be trying not to pick the losers."
David Graham, executive director of LINC said: "Nelson's award highlights the strength and depth of the business angel sector in Scotland, which has accounted for over £53 million of investment in the Scottish economy since 2000.
"Business angels in Scotland are setting a high standard across Europe and continue to play a key role in driving forward the economy."
The full article contains 484 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
