Top Scots entrepreneur and investor joins team at Fife investment firm

Sandy Kennedy has 25 years experience as an entrepreneur, chief executive, investor and advisor to scaling companies, government and entrepreneurial support organisations, including as the longstanding boss of Entrepreneurial Scotland, an advisory board member with Scottish Edge, and a board member at Social Investment Scotland. He is a director at venture capital-backed vertical farming scale-up Intelligent Growth Solutions.

Kennedy has been appointed as a non-executive growth advisor at St Andrews-based Eos, along with Andy Lothian.

Lothian is the chief executive at Dundee-headquartered Insights, the global people development group that operates in more than 40 countries and counts Microsoft, Google, Nike and the NHS among its client base.

An EY Scottish Entrepreneur of the Year in 2016, Lothian is a member of court at the University of Dundee, and is also an advisory board member with the university’s Centre for Entrepreneurship.

Eos has further strengthened its team with Andrew Durkie joining as a partner.

Durkie is a chartered accountant who brings more than 20 years’ experience in mergers and acquisitions and corporate transactions. A former corporate finance specialist with Deloitte, he has held a range of roles in the financial sector including head of group M&A at HBOS and senior corporate development, finance and commercial roles at Lloyds Banking Group’s insurance and wealth division.

Durkie has also supported several early-stage businesses, including within the Eos portfolio.

Andrew McNeill, managing partner, Eos Advisory, said: “As Eos, our portfolio and investments scale, it’s important that we continue to build a team that can help guide us through our next phase of growth. Along these lines, we’re really pleased to get Andrew, Andy, and Sandy on board.”

Eos Advisory, which was founded in 2014, operates three investment divisions - the Eos Syndicate, Eos Innovation Fund and Eos Venture Partnerships - as part of a wider strategy to support the funding of Scottish innovation beyond the seed stage.

The firm’s portfolio now has a valuation in excess of £145 million, following a year in which it saw its first two exit events, including when Genus acquired a large stake in aquaculture specialist Xelect. Another company in Eos’s portfolio, vegan protein specialist Enough, formerly 3F Bio, secured a £36m Series B investment round in June 2021.

Earlier this month, Eos invested in University of Bath spin-out Naturbeads alongside Italian venture capital firm Progress Tech Transfer. The £1.25m seed funding round will support Naturbeads as it develops cellulose-based substitutes for plastic microbeads.

McNeill added: “Microbead plastic water pollution is a significant and hidden environmental hazard that the world is only just starting to wake up to. As countries and industries restrict and ban their use, the market for biodegradable replacements is vast.”

Eos has a portfolio of 15 investee companies including Cumulus Oncology, Enough Foods, RAB-Microfluidics and Dxcover. It invests in four key impact areas: disease diagnosis, prevention and treatment; energy security, climate change and pollution; food and water security; and sustainability of industrial processes and infrastructure.