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Plans to relaunch a Scottish stock exchange after almost 50 years have attracted a seven-figure equity investment from backers.

Accountants Anderson Anderson & Brown (AAB) helped secure the investment from unnamed backers for the Project Heather team which hopes trading on the new exchange will start later this year if it wins approval from regulators.

A further institutional investment round is expected to kick off in the coming months.

Tomas Carruthers, the entrepreneur who founded the Interactive Investor platform, first unveiled plans for the exchange in December and targeting a launch date for the exchange in the second half of 2019.

Businesses who want to raise funds on the exchange will first need to demonstrate how the investment raised will deliver social and environment impacts.

Work to launch the exchange has already seen its backers agree terms with technology partners and platform testing is expected to start soon.

Douglas Martin, head of corporate finance at AAB, said: “We are delighted to have secured the investment for Project Heather which will help to re-establish the Scottish Stock Exchange after almost 50 years. “

In December, Bourse Scot, the company behind the plans revealed it had a partnership with European stock market operator Euronext to launch the exchange.

Carruthers, founder and chief executive of Project Heather, said: “Working closely with AAB, securing this initial round of investment funding is enabling us to work on bringing a Scottish Stock Exchange to full fruition and launch in the second half of this year.

“We believe a stock exchange, built on the principles of raising capital to have a positive impact on society and the environment, will be a major contributor to sustainable economic growth both in Scotland and the UK as well as provide a destination for impact investors and issuers globally."