Founders and investors open up at YCF conference - Nick Freer

“Exits seen from both sides” was the the theme at the annual Young Company Finance conference at the Surgeons Quarter in Edinburgh earlier this month, so it was appropriate that host and speaker Ana Stewart, a partner with impact investment firm Eos, relayed some of her experiences as both a startup founder and investor.

Doug Lawson, founder of MarktoMarket, a data platform for advisers, investors, and corporates operating in SME markets, outlined how February 2021 was a zenith point for deals and exits, following a nadir moment during the spring of 2020. And in spite of the headlines around a declining deals market in 2023, Lawson said the M&A market is reasonably strong against an exceptional 2021.

When it comes to data, the devil is in the details, and while overall deal volume is only down slightly this year, there has been a sharp drop-off in scaleup capital in the £10 million plus range, and Scotland continues to underperform London and the South-East by a “substantial amount”.