Cross Atlantic seeking Scottish deals

Scottish venture capital expert Hazel Cameron is lending her skills to US-based VC firm Cross Atlantic Capital Partners, which is on the look out for technology investment opportunities in Scotland. The firm has recently set up an office in Edinburgh and will be working closely with Cross Atlantic’s bases in Philadelphia, London and Dublin. Cameron says the firm is looking at opportunities UK-wide and that the new office will give the firm a good insight into what the Scottish market is like.

Cross Atlantic manages over $275 million of committed capital and its Cross Atlantic Technology Fund is a $120 million venture fund focused on investments in IT companies in the US, Ireland, England and now Scotland. Cameron’s challenge will be to build up Cross Atlantic’s Scottish presence. The fund will be investing up to $7 million in each Scottish start-up.

Cameron gained her experience with 3i and has backed successes such as Orbital, Kymata and Indigo Vision. Most recently she headed the Edinburgh office of Silicon Valley technology investor, Bowman Capital who last year closed its venture capital business worldwide to focus on its core business in the public hedge fund sector. This left Cameron’s Edinburgh office no other option than to close down. She retains her position on the board of Bowman portfolio company Tao Group. A Reading-based software developer, Tao secured $18 million from an investor group led by Bowman last year and has recently raised $3 million from MCCapital Europe, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi.