Kane Fulton, December 1, 2021 5 min read
One year ago, we launched our inaugural ‘The 12 Days of Scaleups’ campaign to unveil our Rising Stars 3.0 Winners. This December, we’re revisiting the festive theme to announce and celebrate our Rising Stars 4.0 Regional Winners from across the UK as part of our latest 12 Days of Scaleups.
Now into its fourth year, Rising Stars remains the UK’s only national early-stage tech scaleup competition. It is once again fully virtual and our judges have selected not one, but five winners from each region.
Without further ado, we’re excited to announce the Regional Winners of Rising Stars 4.0 in Scotland: Gigged.AI, Know-it, Kythera AI, Letting Cloud, and PolyDigi Tech.
Glasgow-based Gigged.AI is a digital talent platform powered by artificial intelligence. Its cutting-edge technology allows UK-based companies to accelerate digital projects by tapping into on-demand talent. CEO Rich Wilson tells us more.
How does it feel to be a Rising Stars regional winner?
Gigged.AI is delighted to be a Tech Nation Rising Stars 4.0 Scotland Regional Winner. Previous winners have gone on to achieve global success, and we are excited by the platform this will give the company to scale. Our AI-powered talent marketplaces are poised to disrupt how companies source and onboard talent.
How has your region supported you in your journey so far?
Building a company with global ambitions in Scotland is hard. However, we have had great support from Innovate UK and the University of Edinburgh AI Accelerator programme. Also, the startup community has really embraced us with feedback and support.
From Glasgow, cloud-based credit management platform Know-it streamlines the credit control process so you can credit check and monitor customers, mitigate credit risks, chase payment, collect overdue unpaid invoices and so much more, all in one place. Founder and CEO Lynne Darcey Quigley tells us more.
How does it feel to be a Rising Stars regional winner?
It is a great honour to be representing Scotland in such a prestigious awards competition. We hope this will help raise awareness of the £61bn late payment problem currently impacting UK SMEs.
With the recent launch of our innovative credit management fintech platform Know-it, we aim to reduce the amount of money outstanding to SMEs by helping facilitate the chasing and collection of this money while mitigating future credit risk, reducing debtor days and helping boost cashflow.
Edinburgh-based Kythera AI is a middleware provider specialising in advanced tools for designing AI in 3D game engines including (but not limited) to Unreal Engine, Open 3D Engine and Unity. Its mission is to improve the overall quality of the design and experience of AI in games and other simulations by pushing the boundaries of tech and producing improved solutions to the problems faced today. CEO & Lead Architect Matthew Jack tells us more.
How does it feel to be a Rising Stars regional winner?
We’re delighted to be a Rising Stars Regional Winner at what’s already a crucial and exciting time for us as we expand into new markets and grow our team. Our innovative AI tools make an enormous difference to game design, and we are working on new ways to bring life to all our virtual worlds and change the way we look at games entirely. We’re committed to leading the field in game AI and setting an example in supporting the fulfilment and wellbeing of our staff. We’re grateful to be recognised for this and for the opportunities this award presents.
How has your region supported you in your journey so far?
We have experienced wonderful support so far from the Scottish government in the form of an innovation grant which allowed us to establish our product. Additionally, the Scottish tech sector as a community has been an enormous help to us. As tenants of CodeBase Edinburgh, we gain valuable access to networking and training events as well as connections with other local tech firms.
Letting Cloud is dedicated to changing the way people search and let property – in a trustworthy and transparent way. The Edinburgh-based company’s platform aims to bring everyone in the letting industry together under one community cloud to provide a better experience and match people and property in a modern way with purpose. CEO Grant MacCusker tells us more.
How does it feel to be a Rising Stars regional winner?
It is great to see so many local companies being represented in the Rising Stars competition 2021. Every founder and team work hard to create success in their business and this year’s Regional Winners shows that the bar has been raised again.
How has your region supported you in your journey so far?
As a founder it is hard to do many tasks, try to manage a team and wear many hats on a daily basis. Support out there for tech startups is readily available, and founders must take advantage of it.
Based in Edinburgh, PolyDigi Tech is on a mission to protect the data and identities of companies and individuals with innovative authentication solutions suitable for banking, payments, IoT services and more. Its solutions provide high security that is easy to integrate, implement and use while reducing the ongoing cost of protecting assets and identity. CEO and cofounder Curtis Chan tells us more.
How does it feel to be a Rising Stars regional winner?
We can’t express how excited we are to be chosen as the Rising Stars 4.0 Scotland Regional Winner. We hope with this recognition and help from Tech Nation we can take a big step to the next stage.
How has your region supported you in your journey so far?
After Polydigi Tech relocated to Edinburgh in 2019, we have been supported in many ways by Scottish Development International and local fintech communities such as FinTech Scotland since we started our journey here. This helped immensely in establishing our presence here.
