{"id":7988,"date":"2026-10-23T07:23:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T06:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/scotland\/?p=7988"},"modified":"2026-10-23T07:23:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T06:23:36","slug":"widening-the-net-to-catch-more-angels-niki-mckenzie-on-her-new-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/scotland\/news\/7988-widening-the-net-to-catch-more-angels-niki-mckenzie-on-her-new-mission","title":{"rendered":"Widening the net to catch more angels – Niki McKenzie on her new mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Niki McKenzie is on a mission: to raise awareness of, and increase diversity in, the world of angel investing.<\/p>\n

And she’s the person best placed to do so, as\u00a0joint managing director of the oldest Scottish angel group Archangels and chair of the world’s oldest angel industry body Angel Capital Scotland (formerly LINC Scotland).<\/p>\n

But, much like many business angels, it wasn’t until relatively late in her career that she joined a syndicate.<\/p>\n

McKenzie qualified as a chartered accountant while working on corporate finance at KPMG from 1992 to 1995, before joining Bank of Scotland, moving from associate director to director of structured finance after two years, and staying for another four. She then became director of strategic projects at HBOS for seven years, until 2009, before being named senior manager of change and operations across across Lloyds Banking Group, staying there until 2011.<\/p>\n

“I was doing leveraged debt into private equity deals out of the London market, so the complete opposite to little, high-risk equity investments,” McKenzie explains. “But I bumped into the then [Archangels] chief executive and ended up telling him he had the best job.<\/p>\n

“That led to him getting me in to do some work on a particular company, which I managed to fit in – with the bank’s approval – on Friday afternoons,” she continues. “That deal went really well, so he eventually had to offer me a proper job.<\/p>\n

“Essentially it’s all about people and relationships – and being able to do a set of legals, but that’s not hard – so I think people from any profession can get involved, as long as they can handle difficult conversations, resolve complicated problems and have sound judgement of possible outcomes.”<\/p>\n

\"Fraser

Fraser Lusty, managing director of Equity Gap<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

It took her the best part of a decade as an investment director at Archangels before she and David Ovens took over the top job, continuing to develop its 43-strong portfolio of early-stage technology and life-sciences companies; ranging from software development and photonics, to medical devices and bionics.<\/p>\n

During that time, McKenzie has also held several non-executive positions, including at Edinburgh College, St Andrews Innovation – the university’s commercialisation service – and as a trustee of National Museums Scotland.<\/p>\n

In January this year, she was made chair Angel Capital Scotland<\/a>, taking over from Jock Millican, following the appointment of Margaret Morton as chief executive in September. This all-female leadership team is a good start in the search for more diversity, but McKenzie admits there’s work to do, given that of its 125 members, only 20 are women.<\/p>\n

And echoing fellow board member Fraser Lusty’s comments earlier this year<\/a>, she agrees that Angel Capital Scotland must be a bit louder in getting the word out about angel investing.<\/p>\n

“We must help with succession planning for syndicates, as many of them started around 2005 to 2010, so are now coming to retirement age – younger people are out there, we just need to tell our stories better,” says McKenzie.<\/p>\n

“You have to accept it takes some time each month – maybe half a day – so it’s helpful if you’re interested in things like science and technology that we’re often investing in, but I think we can do better at selling the fact some of these innovations are solutions to global problems – newly wealthy people might want to be part of that.<\/p>\n

“You don’t have to have scientific background, just an interest in wanting to make a difference,” she adds. “Those people who think ‘I’m not an angel’, it’s about making the case that they could be, with a bit of explanation and encouragement.”<\/p>\n

\"Taken

Taken from a recent report on the economic impact of early-stage risk capital in Scotland, 1996-2023<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Scotland has one of the world\u2019s most developed angel investment networks – going for more than 20 years – comprising around 2,000 individual investors across 20 groups.<\/p>\n

In the year ending March 2025, deals led by Angel Capital Scotland members unlocked private sector investment of \u00a3106m across 91 investments and leveraged \u00a325.6m of public sector investment; totalling \u00a3132m.<\/p>\n

Published in May, a report based on proprietary data provided by Angel Capital Scotland – authored by Niall MacKenzie, head of Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde, and Margaret Coughtrie, an independent researcher and active angel investor – found that \u00a31.7bn has gone into this riskiest area of investment, of which just under 25% is public money, creating around 41,000 jobs, “at a policy cost that is significantly lower than any other comparable policy initiative in the UK”.<\/p>\n

It concluded that the so-called ‘Scottish model’ – now copied around the world – is predicated on ensuring the conditions are correct for private individuals to invest their own money, time, skills and networks in supporting young and ambitious companies.<\/p>\n

“Consistent within this should be the recognition that angels do not need to do this: they are volunteers rather than conscripts in the operation of this market,” the report read. “Angels expect policy makers to support them in these endeavours and indeed would not undertake these investments without the different direct and indirect policy support measures in place.”<\/p>\n

McKenzie admits that it is often a difficult space to work in, given the level or investment risk.<\/p>\n

“Our syndicate seeks start-ups that are so bleeding edge and disruptive, they’ve got to be something that’s going to unlock a whole lot of value, or different from everything else their sector,” she says. “That’s hard to find, and when you do, it’s hard to say whether it will work – it usually takes a long time to get to the commercialisation phase, and even then, customers may not take the risk of adopting.<\/p>\n

\"A

A chart from the same report, demonstrating the risks involved<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

“That’s tough, so you have you got the right leadership at the right time to deliver successfully,” McKenzie adds, citing Archangels investee company iGii as an example of getting this right.<\/p>\n

In September, the Stirling-based graphene developer secured \u00a322.7m<\/a> to accelerate the commercialisation and industrial adoption of its technology. The Series B round comprises an \u00a311.7m investment led by the Scottish National Investment Bank, with additional backing from PXN Ventures, alongside \u00a311m from Scottish Enterprise.<\/p>\n

This was followed last week by a master services agreement and development programme with Merck to assess adoption of iGii’s nanotechnology. This scaling has been driven by Jean-Christophe Granier, who was appointed three years ago to take the university spin-out to the next level.<\/p>\n

“It’s easy to set up a company, but actually raising the money, that takes having enough proof points at each stage to convince investors, being able to attract the right management resource, reaching adequate scale before the runway runs out,” points out McKenzie. “This always requires an evolution of skillsets – thankfully Scotland’s becoming more ambitious in seeking non-executive talent, sourcing it from overseas for example, because if you get that right, it can save so much time and reduce risk.<\/p>\n

“Good judgment is so crucial with scare resources allocation.”<\/p>\n

McKenzie says it’s also good to see more co-inventors on funding rounds – “which means more competition, but it’s all pretty collaborative up here” – although a lack of liquidity is still evident all the way through the system.<\/p>\n

“That’s been the case since 2021\/22, so I would love to see more exits, but that’s the same issue for venture capital and private equity firms,” she notes. “We just need to work hard to get the right ones through to exit – a couple of things are failing in our portfolio, which means we’re really targeted on good value.”<\/p>\n

McKenzie concludes by mentioning another part of the job as chair of Angel Capital Scotland – her convening power.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got an angel leaders forum going again, it’s about 20 people – a rep from each of the Scottish syndicates – and everyone seems very keen to keep sharing, learning from one another and get speakers in to challenge our ways of thinking.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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