I first came across Archangels back in 2003 when I was gathering data on the sub £1m investment market in the UK. With knowing me, the team there kindly sent me the Archangels deal data every quarter without fail for several years and I remain grateful for their selfless generosity when I was just starting out with AngelNews. 

So I was delighted to receive a copy of their report "Archangels:Impact evaluation of activities, 1992-2015" last week and settled down to an enjoyable read of it this weekend. 

I can summarise the history of Archangels using a pretty graphic they sent me which is set out below. 

It tells a good story, doesn't it. The openness of the report is satisfying, discussing failures as well as successes. In this sense it picks up on the spirit established in Go Beyond's report published earlier this year. 

Overall, the long term Archangels should be pretty satisfied with their performance.  Some of the numbers that stood out for me were:

o   Between £14.34 and £20.39 of turnover is generated per £ invested by Archangels’ companies – in excess of previously documented US VC performance of $6.23 for every $ invested.

o   Failures comprise 44% of Archangels’ total number of investments, but just 14.9% of the monies invested. Archangels spots failures quickly with an average investment period of 3.66 years, compared to 8 years for sold companies.

o   Since Archangels’ formation, £36.6m has been invested in companies that were successfully exited, returning £100.4m of value to investors. A further £38.6m has been invested in the current active portfolio of 23 companies, some of which are nearing exit events.

o   Archangels 10 year returns to 2014 were 20.9% compared with the BVCA’s 14.9% for the same period. The Archangels returns are unleveraged, whereas the BVCA returns will have benefited from structural leverage.

The history of the Archangels investment activity show the diversity of interests in the group.

And then I suspect the state of the portfolio today will be familiar to many established angels. Mature angel investing by volume is a story of holding out for the future!

It was interesting to see what Archangel Portfolio outcomes by volume have been: 

There are four interesting and varied case studies of portfolio companies - Oregon, Touch Bionics, Optos and Airborne Energy - which will be worth reading when you have a moment.

I also enjoyed the extensive and academically sound analysis of Gross Value Added, Exits and the analysis of the importance of Patient Capital. It was interesting to see how much R&D investment has increased over time in this selected group of companies. The Archangels investments have also created jobs - thousands of jobs. 

And my favourite fact of all can be found in the Optos case study. After 31, yes 31 rounds of investment, starting in 1992, the company was floated in April 2006 for £164m and then sold to Nikon this year for £259m, but it remains in Dumfermline Scotland, employing 391 people and remains a world class research and development facility in opthalmology, optics, and photonics.

Those canny Scots are showing us all the way, yet again, and good on them. To the next 25 years Archangels - we salute you!