Scottish start-ups raised more than £60m of venture capital last year from 28 deals - a rise from the £58.4m raised in 2018 from 25 deals.

Edinburgh-based light communication firm Purelifi secured the largest deal, raising a total of £13.6m, Current Health and Intelligent Growth Solutions came a close second, having raised £8.9m and £5m respectively.

Scottish Enterprise Glasgow holds the title of Scotland’s most active investors, having invested £18.6m in 15 across the country, followed closely by Par Equity with seven deals, investing a total of £4.8m. Following closely behind was Archangel Investors, which invested £2.2m in four deals.

Alan Whyte, Scotland manager at Refinitiv, said it was encouraging to see that “Scottish entrepreneurialism is booming with year-on-year increases for deal numbers and volumes.

“Venture Capital firms are preferring to spread their investments across a wider number of businesses which is a fantastic sign of confidence for the start-up economy.”

Across the UK as a whole, companies raised a record £8.1 billion of venture capital in 2019, marking an 85% increase year-on-year. Deal volumes also increased slightly to 560, compared to 554 in 2018.