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May 2024
By Steven Drost,
chief strategy officer and cofounder, CodeBase Scotland
Incumbent tech companies are upbeat; ScotlandIS’ Technology Industry Survey 2024 found that 78% of respondents expressed optimism for business for 2024, with 90% of respondents expecting growth in sales. There is also a lot of momentum around startups in Scotland.
The Scottish Government launched the Techscaler programme in 2022. Working with ecosystem builder CodeBase, the programme provides mentorship and education for founders across the country. The programme now has over 500 member companies, cumulatively attracting investment of more than £52m in its first year. 2024 looks to continue the trend of new company creations.
Scotland’s universities are also very active. There are more entrepreneurship programmes than ever before. Scottish Enterprise announced that 2023 saw the highest-ever number of spinouts. Key areas of interest include medtech, with the Scottish NHS providing data and expertise- sharing programmes for startups throughout the country.
Other verticals include cyber, agritech and climate tech. Filament STAC is incubating IoT startups for some of these. AI is the dominant horizontal, and AI entrepreneurship in particular is a huge opportunity.
Scotland has several world-class universities that can support highly educated computer science students in their startup journey – with Techscaler an obvious next step for them.
Scottish organisations are actively working to make this space open to everybody, regardless of background. AccelerateHer, DataKirk and Black Professionals UK are creating opportunities for greater diversity in the ecosystem.
From an investment perspective, local investor Techstart’s strong activity in the seed space and Par Equity’s new SNIB-backed £100m scaleup fund has brought new funding momentum to Scotland. Techscaler initiatives have organised visits from international VCs, and TuringFest not only delivers Scotland’s flagship annual tech conference, but also organises VC dinners. Of course, there is always room for more investment, but the direction of travel is positive.
There are, naturally, other challenges. In line with global technological shifts, many companies in Scotland are looking at the latest AI developments, trying to understand potential benefits from efficiency gains, while also weighing up risks from the disruption AI brings.
To meet these challenges head-on, while continuing to grow the tech sector, collaboration and partnerships between academia, industry, investors and government bodies is crucial. Scotland is well-placed and well-sized to do just that.
Amy Burnett,
Emerging Giants lead – Scotland, KPMG in the UK
The wider ecosystem is keen to support the growth of the tech sector, and it’s great to see collaboration taking place. With new scaleup funds, accelerators, and support from the private sector too, founders are well supported. Poised as the data capital of Europe, Edinburgh is aiming to become the UK’s top city for startups, with 92% growth potential, while we see Glasgow grow its brand as one of the UK’s biggest tech investment hubs.
It should also be highlighted that Aberdeen’s tech community continues to grow and it’s super to see the ecosystem there increasing its support for cleantech, biotech and wider tech. Dundee has a great heritage and is well known for its gaming expertise. More broadly, we are seeing the universities playing a central role in the creation of talent and spinouts
KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership, is a leading professional services firm operating from 20 offices across the UK with approximately 17,000 partners and staff. We employ more than 700 colleagues across our Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow offices, working across areas like digital technology, M&A, tax and consulting.
Whether it’s steering a business through early-stage funding and investment, sharing guidance on governance responsibilities, making introductions to industry specialists from across our global firm, or helping to tackle the inevitable challenges that come with growth – we help our clients overcome challenges big and small.
We can walk businesses through tried and tested means of getting to the end destination, while exploring alternative routes for businesses that are anything but ordinary.
The vision of the Cyber Innovation Hub is: “To transform Cardiff Capital Region into a leading UK cyber cluster by 2030”. The Hub is creating a pipeline of new cyber products, high-growth businesses, and talent in the region. The Cyber Innovation Hub is led by Cardiff University with a consortium of multiple private and public sector partners including Airbus, the Alacrity Foundation, CGI, Thales, Tramshed Tech, and the University of South Wales. The Hub is funded by Welsh Government and Cardiff Capital Region.
The Hub offers a range of hands-on, practical training courses, aimed at companies, employees and those looking to enter the cyber sector. We have courses covering a wide range of topics including operational technology, cloud security and governance, risk and compliance. The Hub also wraps commercial teams around ground-breaking solutions and creates new startups to solve industry-led challenges. In addition, the Hub is developing a range of innovative cybersecurity testbeds where tools and techniques can be tested, evaluated and demonstrated.
For information on both our cyber training courses and our venture building programme then head to our website at: https://cyberinnovationhub.wales/
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Tramshed Tech was founded in 2016 with a mission to create connected workspaces for tech, digital and creative business owners in Wales. Originally based out of Grangetown’s historic Tramshed building, Tramshed Tech now run spaces across South Wales in Cardiff, Newport, Barry and soon to be Swansea which a range of coworking, office space, meeting room, event space and podcast studios available.
As well as workspace, Tramshed Tech delivers a range of skills training and business support programmes designed to support founders at varying stages of growth from idea generation and product market fit, through to investor readiness and international export.
Tramshed Tech is more than a space to work, it’s an interconnected community that brings together founders, startups, scaleups, enterprise organisations, investors, corporates, universities and government bodies to spark conversations, foster collaboration, forge partnerships and facilitating game-changing innovation. Learn more: tramshedtech.co.uk, @tramshedtech, memberships@tramshedtech.co.uk
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