Par Equity

Mission Impacts

The fund will enable significant access to crucial scale-up funding to drive growth in the tech sector within Scotland, supporting innovation, job creation and economic benefits. This investment aligns with our innovation mission.

About Par Equity

Par Equity is a leading venture capital firm, investing in innovative technology companies with high growth potential, in the North of the UK. Since it was founded in 2008, Par Equity has invested over £160m across 77 companies, leveraging a further £268m of capital from third party investors.

The venture capital firm seeks to partner with early-stage companies, operating B2B business models and with strong intellectual property. Many of these companies are innovating in the fields of health tech, climate tech and industrial tech, often driven by new technologies such as robotics, photonics, advanced materials and artificial intelligence.

“The Bank’s cornerstone investment will enable significant access to crucial scale-up funding to drive growth in the Scottish tech sector, delivering real impact by catalysing innovation and supporting the critical development of the locally-based venture capital industry".

Jimmy Williamson

Executive Director, Innovation, Scottish National Investment Bank

Key Information

Key Mission

Harnessing Innovation

Amount Invested

£20m

Location

Edinburgh

Co-funders

Strathclyde Pension Fund, British Business Investments, University of Strathclyde.

Alignment to the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals

All of the investments the Bank makes support the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. This investment supports the goals below:

Goal 8

Decent Work and Economic Growth

Goal 9

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Key quote

Paul Munn, Managing Partner at Par Equity said: "We are delighted to announce the fund to accelerate innovation in Scotland and the North of the UK. Championing Scottish talent has been our aim since we launched Par Equity, and we firmly believe in the potential to nurture successful leaders right here in Scotland."

Mark Logan, Chief Entrepreneurial Advisor to Scottish Government said: “Scotland’s tech sector produces an ever-larger number of high-quality tech start-ups, but the ecosystem has been previously constrained by a lack of focus on the region from VCs able to provide scaling capital.

“A key recommendation of the Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review was therefore to provide a major stimulus in this area through public-private partnership. That stimulus has just arrived, and it’s a breakthrough moment for Scotland. Par Equity has again demonstrated its commitment to supporting the nation’s start-up ecosystem through its leadership in securing this scale-up fund.”

Par Equity