Scotland
Discover events, stories and useful resources in your local tech cluster
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Our Entrepreneur Engagement Managers (EEMs) are helping to build a national network of ambitious tech entrepreneurs.
We don’t have an EEM in Scotland for you to contact yet, but that will be changing very soon.
This page is your directory to help you find the best resources available in the region. Get in touch for help with plugging into our UK-wide entrepreneur network, applying for Tech Nation’s growth programmes, and everything inbetween.
Email – info@technation.io
Scotland in stats
For more stats on UK tech, discover Tech Nation report 2019
3.86Digital tech turnover (£bn)
9,045Digital tech business count
58,000Employment in digital tech
68Digital tech productivity per worker (£000s)
Also check out: Yorkshire | North East | North West | Northern Ireland | Midlands | Wales | East of England | South West | London
Edinburgh
Calum Forsyth, founder and CEO, Seed Haus
Opportunities?
The UK in general is a great place to raise investment – Edinburgh’s proximity to London is useful and we have great engineering talent across the city. What Edinburgh has lacked, in recent years, is a globally recognised tech edge (or USP), which is why I’m pleased to see a united effort to double down on the goal of building out Edinburgh as the data capital of Europe.
Challenges?
Christian Jantzen, of futuristic.vc, recently tweeted something that resonated with me. To paraphrase him, most European capitals are wrestling with two parallel tech ecosystems. The ‘Old World’ (politics/public sector, corporates, angels from traditional business backgrounds) is trying to engage with entrepreneurs, whereas the ‘New World’ actually gets “it”. Edinburgh is no different and, in my opinion, is over-indexed towards the Old World approach to entrepreneurship. This is changing but it will be a process, not a single event.
Glasgow
Michael Hayes, founder, RoookieOven and Add Jam
Opportunities?
Glasgow is becoming a home for financial services and is seeing huge levels of investment from our leading universities. Strathclyde and Glasgow are building innovation zones that will touch all aspects of tech – from fintech and medtech to smart cities and beyond. That will be a huge draw for researchers, academics, funding and talent.
Challenges?
I think local government has struggled with fostering a technology ecosystem in the city. Other cities in Scotland – Edinburgh, Dundee and Stirling – have worked to foster an ecosystem with investment in infrastructure and support that it needs. In Glasgow there hasn’t been that level of engagement with the grassroots startup community; rather, the focus has been to attract names such as Barclays, and JP Morgan, etc. As a city, the risk is that we focus on large corporates and ignore the plethora of homegrown talent and opportunity on our doorstep.
Dundee
Andy Campbell, Head of Accelerator, Elevator
Opportunities?
It’s a really exciting time for Dundee, with the reshaping of the waterfront and the opening of the V&A (a design museum) late last year. There is a real focus on design within the universities, local businesses and support organisations to embrace the benefits of a design-led ethos. The attention and inbound interest in the city is providing the local market with international exposure.
Challenges?
While it is a newly energised environment, Dundee is still finding its feet in terms of investment activity. Alongside this, access to talent remains a challenge. Skills shortages in the tech sector, and Brexit, are adding more strain to being able to attract and access the skill level business often need to be able to grow. That said, the positives in the city far outweigh the challenges and we are seeing Dundee further grow as a hotspot for games, life sciences and biotech.
- Tech Nation Upscale alumnus LendingCrowd has announced a deal with the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) and Dutch bank NIBC to provide funding of more than £18m to support small and medium-sized businesses.
- Seed Haus, the Edinburgh-based pre-seed tech investors, have rapidly established themselves within the Scottish ecosystem. The limited partners in their angel fund include many of the country’s leading investors. Seed Haus are averaging an investment every 6-8 weeks, with the portfolio comprising 12 companies and growing.
- Two Edinburgh healthtech firms saw investment wins in 2018. Care Sourcer, a free care matching service based in Edinburgh’s CodeBase coworking space, expanded its team after raising £8.5m from Legal & General Retail and ADV in July. Meanwhile, remote patient monitoring device company Current (formerly Snap40), raised £6.1m in seed funding to double its headcount.
- Kumulos, an app optimisation platform started in 2015, raised €750k in a funding round, backed by Mercia Fund Managers, to deliver its growth plans.
- Published by Digital Glasgow Board in December 2018, the Glasgow Digital Strategy outlined twin key aims. The first is to maximise the contribution that digital tech can make to local economic growth. The second was to transform how public services are delivered.
- Barclays has announced plans to develop a campus in Buchanan Wharf on the bank of the River Clyde to home its tech, functions and ops teams. Set for completion in 2021, the move is expected to create up to 2,500 jobs, doubling the bank’s workforce in Scotland.
- The University of Glasgow announced plans to build a new hi-tech campus in Govan, also on the banks of the Clyde, which will act as a centre for nanotechnology and precision medicine. It will be funded partly by the university, and partly by the Glasgow City region deal, with work expected to begin within two years.
- The Scottish Government has committed to invest £2m to support 5G testbeds and trials in the Tay region, helping to put it at the forefront of 5G deployment. This is to match the Growth Accelerator £2m investment into 5G from Dundee City Council.
- Dundee’s video games cluster is set for a boost thanks to a multi-million-pound Innovation for Games and Media Enterprise (InGAME) R&D centre. Geared around collaboration and led by the city’s Abertay University, it aims to drive products, service and experience innovation in the city while acting as a model for UK-wide games sector innovation.
- Enterprise service management company Cherwell opened a new European R&D facility, called Dundee One, on the £1bn redeveloped waterfront office complex in Dundee’s city centre. The company’s first international satellite to its Colorado-based tech team, the new facility houses development staff.
Stuart Lunn, founder and CEO, LendingCrowd
About LendingCrowd
LendingCrowd is a fintech business that operates a marketplace for SME lending. The platform’s sole focus is the UK SME market, with a strong sense of purpose to help alleviate market failure in the provision of funding to SMEs.
Year founded
2004
Investment raised
£5.2m
Why Edinburgh?
Being based in Edinburgh continues to have several advantages. We have access to a large vibrant pool of financial services employees, including credit specialists. Additionally, we have access to technology expertise due to financial institutions, universities, and the developing ecosystem of digital and fintech companies, supported by initiatives such as FinTech Scotland.
Additionally, there are considerably lower set-up and operating costs than achievable in London, not to mention favourable local public body support, such as Scottish Enterprise, which has supported the company. Finally, it’s a beautiful city and area, making it easier to attract and retain staff, and it’s a place that we are truly proud to call home.
National and international focus?
LendingCrowd is UK-focused, with a split of 80% of borrowers and retail investors being based in England and Wales, with the remainder in Scotland.
Nick Guy, founder, No Logo Media
About No Logo Media
We help brands with no logos. Social media creators (aka influencers) with huge followings are the new brands of our time, but they often need help with the commercial side of their work. We represent and build ventures with leading influencers globally. We and our creators have worked with brands such as Waitrose, Adobe & TikTok.
Year founded
2017
Why Edinburgh?
Edinburgh and more broadly, Scotland have historically been places of innovation. Edinburgh is small enough to create a sense of community but large enough to be able to make things happen. We are based out of the RBS Accelerator at their global headquarters – an incredible place to work.
National and international focus?
We are thematically focused as opposed to geographically. We primarily work in the food & drink space; we help people consume food in a new way. In particular, we work within the plant-based world. Plant-based living is hugely on the rise and we currently work with influencers in the UK, Europe and Australia.
Chitresh Sharma, cofounder and CEO, Swipii
About Swipii
Swipii is on a mission to give local businesses the tools and technology they need to compete on a level playing field with global brands. We want consumers to use Swipii to discover local offers, save money on their everyday purchases and share them with their friends & community.
Year founded
2015
Investment raised
£5m
Why Glasgow?
Louis (my cofounder) and I did our masters degree and found early angel investors while scaling the busines. We realised Glasgow is very economic and supportive of early-stage companies – and getting support from the likes of Scottish Enterprise, while finding the right mentor early on, made us stick to the city.
National and international focus
The focus this year is national – it’s very likely that in late 2020 we will expand to our first international country.
Mike Newman, CEO, My1Login
About My1Login
My1Login is the UK’s most secure and most widely-compatible enterprise Identity & Access Management solution, one that enables organisations to mitigate password-related cyber-security risks, control user identities and meet critical compliance obligations such as GDPR. My1Login’s Single Sign-On solution was named IAM Solution of the Year at the Computing Security Awards.
Year founded
2007
Investment raised
£4m
Why Glasgow?
We are headquartered in London but our centre of gravity is Glasgow. The city has access to a well-educated and highly-skilled workforce, with two of the world’s top-100 ranked universities less than one hour away. Glasgow is well-connected to most cities making it straight-forward to do business across the UK.
National and international focus
My1Login already have a number of international customers; however, our current focus is on continuing to build our UK enterprise customer base. It already spans the financial services, public sector, police forces and hospitality sectors. We will be expanding into other international territories over the next 18 months.
Michael Carr, cofounder, GoRoadie
About GoRoadie
GoRoadie modernises the ‘Learn to drive’ industry through a platform that allows learners to book vetted instructors while helping instructors manage day-to-day admin.
Year founded
2017
Why Dundee?
Dundee has a history of innovation: the first radio broadcast in the world was sent from there, and Grand Theft Auto (and Lemmings) were born here. More recently the multi-award winning V&A design museum opened its doors and has welcomed over 1 million visitors. Today, there is a real buzz in this city which is now known as the heart of video games, medical research, and technology innovation.
National and international focus
GoRoadie is rolling out across the UK having launched in Dundee, Aberdeen, and Glasgow. The company is actively expanding across England this summer and has almost 40,000 instructors in the UK, a market it is currently focusing on with a view to international expansion in the future.
Debbie Wake, CEO and Chief Medical Officer, My Way Digital Health
About My Way Digital Health
MyWay Digital Health (MWDH) is a University of Dundee spin-out company that aims to provide technology solutions to support people with diabetes and transform healthcare.
Year founded
2017
Why Dundee?
Dundee is a city that keeps reinventing itself and is fast becoming a mecca for design, life sciences, and innovation. Friendly and easy to navigate, it’s a great place to set up a business. We have received a lot of support from the Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Dundee and benefited from the wider ecosystem. The University is one of the best in the UK for student feedback, and a great breeding ground for future innovators.
National and international focus
We now have a strong UK presence with contracts/product in around one quarter of all UK NHS areas. We are now building a pipeline in the Middle East (where 1 in 4 people have diabetes) and the USA, as our next step markets.
Latest news from the region
Support for founders
Networks & meetups
Research shows that collaborative tech ecosystems with thriving meetup scenes are more likely to succeed. As a founder, making the effort to get out to meetups and network events can lead to serendipitous encounters with people in the community who can give your business a boost.
- We’re currently building out our list of meetups and networks in Scotland. If you have a suggestion, let us know!
Co-working space
Co-working isn’t just about the free coffee – it’s a more flexible alternative to working out of traditional office space and brings the benefits of being part of a community. It’s a great way to build out your network, find people to collaborate with and discover the best tech events. We’ve highlighted some of the best co-working spaces in the region.
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- Edinburgh – CodeBase Edinburgh
- Edinburgh – Techcube
- Edinburgh – The Melting Pot
- Edinburgh – Tribe Porty
- Glasgow – Rookie Oven
- Glasgow – The Whisky Bond
- Glasgow – Collabor8te
- Stirling – Codebase Stirling
Skills support
From learning how to develop software to nailing the art of self-promotion, helping your team brush up on their digital and soft skills can be financially rewarding. We’ve highlighted some of the best code clubs, incubators, accelerators, bootcamps and other support services in the region.
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Finance and investment
Securing finance and raising investment can be vital when it comes to taking your startup to the next level. Whether you’re seeking angel, VC or other types of finance, we’ve picked out a range of investors, funds and support networks in the region.
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- Edinburgh – Archangels
- Edinburgh – Scottish Equity Partners
- Edinburgh – Par Equity
- Edinburgh – Pentech Ventures
- Edinburgh – Seed Haus
- Glasgow – ADV
- Glasgow – LINC Scotland
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