Scottish EDGE invests £1.5 million into 38 early stage, high growth businesses
With many UK firms struggling to innovate against the current economic backdrop, 38 Scottish businesses with high-growth potential have received a much-needed injection of cash at the 22nd round of the Scottish EDGE Awards that took place last night.
Taking place for the first time in Glasgow since 2019 and hosted by the Royal Bank of Scotland, the awards were attended by Simon Hannah in his first official engagement as Chair of the organisation, and Mark Scott, CEO of pet wellness brand Bella & Duke. This year also saw the introduction of the new Scottish Government-backed £100,000 Pathways Award, to support an ambitious female entrepreneur and was presented to Good Nude Food, a multi-award winning, probiotic fermented sauerkraut company.
Good Nude Food - Evonne Morrison with Karen Roger of ScotGov and Mark Scott of Bella & Duke
Two of the other big winners of the evening were Brose Oats, which triumphed in the Food and Drink Category, a new award sponsored by Food & Drink Scotland, and Conneckt Charging, an EV charging network which won in the Net Zero category, supported by Royal Bank of Scotland. Both winners took home a prize worth £100,000, while GLORIAH, a company manufacturing sustainable intimate care products for women experiencing menopause, won a prize worth £80,000 in the Zero Waste Scotland supported Circular Economy category.
GLORIAH - Jessica Watson and Isla Telfer with Lucinda Bruce-Gardine - Circular EDGE Winner
Sustainability was also a theme for Oir Soap, who won £65,000 alongside the STV Award of £75,000 of advertising airtime, and who create luxury soaps using natural ingredients. Biotech start-up Prozymi Biolabs won the £65,000 IBioIC award to further their quest to revolutionise the gluten-free market, while Edinburgh Open Workshop, which offers affordable and flexible access to workshop machinery and tools, was awarded £75,000 in the Social Enterprise category, which is supported by The Postcode Innovation Trust.
Oir Soap - Jolene Roberts with Mark Scott of Bella & Duke and Danielle Kelly of STV
The Young EDGE and Wildcard categories returned this round, with the former supporting companies whose Managing Directors are under 30 years old and the latter providing a grant to pre-trading businesses which need support to bring their products to market. Winners of this year’s Young EDGE award ranged from Selki Store, which provides heat packs to people suffering from chronic pain, to confectionery companies Tabrifics and Chocolatia, who received the £15,000 Harper Macleod and Scottish Enterprise top Young EDGE awards respectively.
Scottish EDGE Round 22 - Young EDGE Winners with Marjory Sweeney of Scottish Enterprise
Wildcard winners included Claymore Surgical Ltd, who are developing a software platform to automate the diagnosis of childhood sleep apnoea, and Practest, who are aiming to revolutionise GPs’ communication with their patients.
Wild Card EDGE Winners
Sir Tom Hunter of the Hunter Foundation said:
“Bold, brave and brilliant – those are the characteristics of Scottish EDGE winners. All the evidence points to Scotland needing far more of these businesses. EDGE is a brilliant supporter of high growth business and I’m sure could do a lot more for Scotland’s economy with the right Government support.”
Judith Cruickshank, MD Commercial Mid Market at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said:
“The Scottish EDGE awards continue to showcase the remarkable innovative talent present within Scotland’s entrepreneurial community. Helping businesses to scale and succeed is core to our principles which is why we're so proud to continue our support for the Scottish EDGE awards.
"We'd like to congratulate all those businesses who were awarded funding at last night’s awards, and we can't wait to see their progress in the coming months. As supporters of the Net Zero category, we'd like to extend special congratulations to Connekt Charging. Their work in creating an extensive and reliable charging network has the potential to be transformational."
Jane Martin, managing director of innovation and investment at Scottish Enterprise said:
“We’re pleased to continue our support for the Young EDGE category, which was once again a highly competitive field. Scottish EDGE has an important role to play within Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. By supporting innovative, high growth potential start-ups, together we can drive Scotland’s future economic prosperity and create purposeful, scaling companies of the future.”
Evelyn McDonald, CEO of Scottish EDGE, said:
“As businesses across Scotland find themselves facing challenging circumstances, there’s never been a more urgent need to drive creativity and innovation. The winners of the 22nd round of Scottish EDGE are testament to the incredible potential within Scotland’s start-up landscape. The addition of further awards this round, both Pathways and Food and Drink, has allowed us to reward more businesses, and alongside our partner organisations we continue our commitment to help Scottish businesses not just survive, but to thrive”.
Supported by The Hunter Foundation, the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise, Scottish EDGE has a key role to play in facilitating the nation’s economic growth.
List of this year’s Scottish EDGE winners (alphabetically):
Ansearch (Edinburgh) - Ansearch connect to all of your business apps, to make their data searchable from one place (imagine Google, but the results are from your business) – Young EDGE, £10,000
BOROBOSCOT (Edinburgh) - Introducing Maah, a robotic platform and its digital twin designed to aid older adults and caregivers improve both their lives and work, against the backdrop of the demographic crisis - £80,000
Brose Oats (East Lothian) - Brose is a healthy and delicious alternative to dairy, and is made of the most environmentally sustainable substances of all plant-based drinks – oats – Food & Drink, £100,000
CaskNet (Edinburgh) - CaskNet is a digital cask register, authenticating ownership of whisky casks owned by private individuals or brokers in Scotland, alleviating problems facing the industry - £65,000
CEXAL LTD (Edinburgh) - CEXAL Ltd creates rapid, accurate and cost-effective test kits for the identification of harmful pathogens in water samples – Young EDGE, £10,000
Chocolatia (Forfar)- Chocolate producer from a restaurant background making luxury chocolates with ethical, sustainable ingredients, showcasing Scottish seasonal produce and highlighting their importance – Young EDGE, £15,000
Coolthstore Ltd (Edinburgh) - We provide FridgeMate, a non-battery energy-storage module onto which all future fridges will be built. FridgeMate harvests and stores renewable energy for later peak-time usage – Wildcard, £10,000
Conneckt Charging (Ayr/Glasgow)- Connekt is a privately operated EV charging network and App which integrates into commercial EV charging solutions to provide its drivers with a seamless and reliable charging experience – Net Zero, £100,000
Claymore Surgical (Glasgow) - We are developing a centralised software platform to automate the diagnosis of childhood sleep apnoea and prioritise treatment for the children who need urgent care – Wild Card, £15,000
Edinburgh Open Workshop (Edinburgh) - A creative makerspace offering affordable, flexible, Pay-As-You-Go access to workshop machinery and tools – Social £75,000
Eye to the Future - Eye to the Future develops software that enables clinicians to deliver improved and more consistent health outcomes through earlier diagnosis of critical eye conditions - £70,000
Feverfew Garden Company (Orkney) - We're the UK's first functional gardenwear brand specifically designed for women. We create high quality products that help women feel confident in the garden - £10,000
GLORIAH (Edinburgh) - GLORIAH create, manufacture, and sell sustainable luxury intimate care products for women experiencing menopausal symptoms alongside providing educational, sharable content focused on the menopause – Circular Economy, £80,000
Good Nude Food (Shetland Isles) - Good Nude Food is a multi-award-winning, probiotic fermented sauerkraut company. Our vision is to be a brand leader in the growing gut-healthy, fermented food sector – Pathways, £100,000
Gradatim (Edinburgh) - We create children’s picture books to aid the delivery of complex disability/illness information to children under 5 that are read in conjunction with their treatment – Wildcard, £10,000
Happy Leaf Ltd (Glasgow) - Developing an all-in-one smart sensor and app that makes growing houseplants easy – Wildcard, £10,000
Highland Domes Ltd (Dingwall) - We build competitively priced, visually pleasing geodesic greenhouses that are more resilient, better insulated and with more economic use of space than alternative structures – Young EDGE, £10,000
Jacks-Alt-Stays (Millport) - Jack’s Alt-Stays – A one-of-a-kind cabin accommodation concept on a scenic Scottish island, powered by renewable energy - £90,000
Klank (St Andrews)- Klank is a live-music booking service that connects musical performers, event hosts, and fans in an intuitive, streamlined, mobile application – Young EDGE, £10,000
Local Caddie Ltd (Edinburgh) - Local Caddie is an innovative virtual platform connecting Golf Tourists and Scottish Caddies – Wildcard, £10,000
Marked: Wayfinding System (Glasgow) - MARKED: Wayfinding System, is a micro-mobility management and navigation system that aims to redefine how people experience cycling and scooting in the city – Young EDGE, £10,000
Oir Soap Ltd (South Queensferry) - At Oir we make luxury, plastic-free soaps using all natural and sustainable ingredients. The bars are deigned to replace shower gel – STV, £65,000 + £75,000 ad airtime
Nami Surgical Ltd (Glasgow) - Nami has developed a miniaturised ultrasonic scalpel for robotic assisted surgery. Nami is an innovative B2B OEM for surgical robot manufacturers - £80,000
Planner Bee VA Services Ltd (Aberdeen) - Planner Bee VA Services is a Virtual Assistant Service supporting sustainable and ethical businesses to make a buzz with their digital marketing – Young EDGE, £10,000
Practest (Kirkwall) - We are on a mission to change how GPs communicate with their patients. Developing the Practest product (trading name), responsible for commercialisation and customer – Wildcard, £10,000
Pro Dispense (Hamilton) - A protein machine that dispenses a smooth organic blend of protein and other key supplements such as creatine, on demand whenever the user requires – Young EDGE, £10,000
Prozymi Biolabs (Edinburgh) - A biotech start-up that aims to revolutionise the gluten-free market using gluten-degrading enzymes for the production of gluten-free bread made of wheat – IBioIC, £65,000
Quine Ltd (West Lothian) - Quine Magazine, the only digital-first publication for women in Scotland. Quine covers the latest in fashion, beauty, lifestyle and careers – Young EDGE, £10,000
Research in Dreams t/a Hubble Bubble (Edinburgh) - Hubble Bubble is an online AI-based platform matching international students with the right course based on their passion at the top universities in the UK - £70,000
Screen Hustler (Glasgow) - Screen Hustler is a talent marketplace and portfolio platform for the film and TV industry – Young EDGE, £10,000
Selki Store (Stirling) - We aim to help people living with chronic pain by contributing to the understanding of their needs, and by creating functional heat-packs – Young EDGE, £10,000
SIP IT (Scotland) (Aberdeen) - SIP IT takes pride in being Scotland's only PUR SIP manufacturer of structural insulated panels - £85,000
Tabrifabrics (Aberdeen) - Tabrifics® is a new small-batch Scottish confectionery company, which is passionate about bringing new life to our nation’s classic confection – Young EDGE, £15,000
The Prebiotic Company (Edinburgh) - The Prebiotic Company's principal business activity is the sale of our own innovative prebiotic water under the brand name ió fibrewater - £70,000
Tourprism (Stirling) - Tourprism develops a web application that empowers tourism businesses with customized feedback insights, crucial for their business strategy and tactical decisions – Wildcard, £10,000
Ujaama Spice (Edinburgh) - Scottish spice trading business, committed to decolonizing the traditional supply chain and shifting the stigma surrounding spice commodities – Young EDGE, £10,000
Venturithm (Glasgow) - Venturithm is a web-based simulation platform that supports entrepreneurs by transforming market research into financial projections, enabling a new level of business model experimentation – Wildcard, £10,000
2B Jumps (Edinburgh) - 2B Jumps has created an innovative showjump design that increases horse welfare, rider safety and enhances course building efficiency and accessibility – Wildcard, £10,000