Scottish EDGE announces Round 16 Finalists and first virtual Live Final
Scottish EDGE’s first live-streamed Final will take the UK’s largest funding competition to the virtual space for the first time.
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Given current restrictions around events and gatherings, this Round’s Judges and Finalists will join the proceedings virtually as will keynote event speakers. The event will be live-streamed by Metro Production Group thanks to support from the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The current round of Scottish EDGE kicked-off in late January before pausing due to the impact of the pandemic. After relaunching in July, the competition attracted a record number of applications from which 41 business were selected to pitch virtually to a collective panel of 16 judges during an intensive four-day long semi-final.
The emerging 24 multisector finalists will now pitch for a share in Scottish EDGE’s prize pot of £1 million to a heavyweight panel of judges, featuring Poonam Gupta OBE of PG Paper Company Ltd; Simon Hannah of Filshill; Chris van der Kuyl of 4J Studios; Social Entrepreneur and Investor, Poonam Malik; Darina Garland of Ooni Pizza Ovens; Gillian Docherty OBE of The Data Lab; Brian Williamson of 4icg; and Freda Newton MBE of Jacobite Cruises on 29th and 30th September.
Long term supporter and funder of Scottish EDGE, Sir Tom Hunter will be joined in conversation by a yet to be announced special guest, as will Scottish EDGE Advisory Board Member, Chris van der Kuyl. Guiding the event will be returning Round 13 Host and crowd favourite, Matthew Quinn of Future Sales Factory.
A virtual evening awards ceremony will follow on 7th October, during which around half of the finalists will be awarded a share of the money on offer, with prizes ranging from £10,000 up to £150,000 in either a grant only or 50/50 grant/loan split format. This round will additionally see the first STV Growth EDGE Award, introduced in partnership with STV and offering support to a winning consumer-based product business in the form of £75,000 worth of airtime and a launch commercial to help grow the businesses. This Award is an exciting addition to the suite of existing awards which include the core Scottish EDGE, Young EDGE and Wild Card EDGE categories, as well as the specialist category awards: Higgs EDGE, Creative EDGE, Social Enterprise EDGE (supported by Postcode Innovation Trust) and Circular Economy EDGE (supported by Zero Waste Scotland).
Scottish EDGE is the UK’s biggest funding competition for small businesses. It supports Scotland’s most innovative, high-growth potential start-ups with up to £150,000 in cash and provides a business support package that includes mentoring, support and signposting to alternative finance.
In addition to the Hunter Foundation, it is also supported by Royal Bank of Scotland, the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise and has a vital role to play in the country’s economic growth. In the 15 rounds to date, Scottish EDGE has awarded more than £15 million to over 390 Scottish businesses.
Full list of Finalists:
Adtondeo - Klipp-it® is a multifunctional reusable device which clips to scaffolding or cylindrical objects. It is made up of slots and voids which allow Klipp-it® to be used in many different applications. These uses include attaching banners, debris netting, sheeting, securing brickguards, cable management and other applications easily, safely and quickly.
Bellfield Brewery * - Based in Edinburgh, Bellfield Brewery is the UK’s first, exclusively gluten-free & vegan brewery. Its mission is to make great-tasting, craft beer that everyone can enjoy, regardless of allergies or diet. The business has created 10 jobs - all shareholders - and doubled turnover every year since 2015.
bubu skincare - bubu has created unique skincare masks that are targeted towards a globally growing and inclusive gen z /millennial customer who seek affordable, effective and convenient products. The bubu launch range of masks are bespoke, protected by trade secret, and sold via a combined business model of b2b and b2c.
Craft Prospect Ltd - Craft Prospect uses emerging AI and quantum technologies to deliver space-based products and services. The first product, the Forwards Looking Imager uses onboard AI to improve efficiency of satellite operations. The business has been awarded national mission (in-kind value £1M), leading a consortium of UK organisations to deliver novel cybersecurity services.
Edinburgh Teahouses (Wholesale) Ltd - The only Scottish tea business genuinely manufacturing small batch bespoke tea blends. Throughout the Covid-19 lockdown the business had a large increase in sales to hamper companies, corporates and online retailers in addition to exporting to Germany, the USA and Japan.
Fellow Creatures Ltd - Based in Edinburgh, Fellow Creatures make unbelievably creamy dairy-free chocolate. Not just for vegans, it brings something completely new to the chocolate aisle. Already a bestseller in Planet Organic's stores in London, buzz within the online vegan community has reached over 1m.
Fresh Car Care - Mobile care care platform building a base of subscribers who manage their car cleaning and maintenance through an app. Customers create their own account and can then book valets, subscribe, book car maintenance with one of the business’ trusted suppliers, pay online and check their MOT date.
GoRoadie - Despite there being enough driving instructors in the UK to meet learner driver demand, learners still find themselves waiting months to start lessons, or have no idea how to start. Learners and instructors need a way of finding each other. GoRoadie solves this by providing a marketplace of qualified instructors.
IntelliPalp Dx - A biomedical engineering spin-out company developing devices that can assess the mechanical properties of soft tissue for use in cancer diagnosis. Currently working on commercialising the ProstaPalp, a novel DRE probe for the early detection of prostate cancer with other devices in the pipeline.
John o' Groats Brewery Ltd - John o’Groats Brewery produces and sells quality cask and bottled ales across northern Scotland and has started an ambitious expansion project to create an iconic tourist experience - new premises, with brewery, tourist centre and tasting bar - in the heart of John o’Groats to drive ‘scale-up’ internationally.
Kingdom Scotland Limited - Scotland’s first fragrance house. KINGDOM SCOTLAND is a timeless realm creatively explored in scent. This is a new Scottish luxury brand - with gender inclusive scents, authentic stories, and selective distribution. The perfumes are uniquely complex, last longer and consciously crafted with the finest sustainable and ethical ingredients.
Matugga Distillers Limited - Matugga Distillers produces an award-winning range of artisanal Scottish spirits - under the Matugga Rum and Liv Rum brand names. These are distilled from scratch in Livingston and distributed across the UK and Europe. A young, independent and ambitious distillery, Matugga is at the forefront of the burgeoning rum boom.
MI:RNA Ltd - The business will provide a completely unique, cost-effective diagnostic assay that identifies heart disease in companion animals using only a blood sample. This is a ground-breaking development in diagnostic testing and is not currently possible in human or animal medicine.
Ogi Bio - ŌGI Bio offers customers in the microbiology sector affordable and innovative solutions for automation and analysis of microbial culturing through development of a series of retrofittable devices. This gives customers a flexible base from which to accelerate their innovation by increasing their R&D capability and throughput.
Origin Peptides - The Manufacture of peptides, for research, cosmetic and in the future for pharmaceutical use. Peptides are important in the Pharmaceutical. cosmetic, materials and food industries. This method is ~150x cheaper, completely environmentally friendly, and ~6x faster.
Peachy Mondays - Peachy Mondays is an award-winning people technology company. The anonymous employee feedback platform improves working lives – driving employee engagement, retention and productivity – by closing the loop from feedback to action in real-time. It’s a fast and fully inclusive alternative to traditional surveys, pulses, and focus groups.
Pillow Property Partners Ltd - International Travel Tech Platform that matches holiday home owners with quality guests from around the world, while supporting local charites and small independent businesses with every stay. Management of holiday homes and serviced accommodation throughout the UK.
Quosient - Planetary-scale satellite data is now available for unprecedented intel about global changes (deforestation, urban expansion, large-scale disasters). EarthBlox removes the complexity, cost and skill-levels required to exploit space data and democratises access to terrabytes of global satellite data, for decision-makers in every sector.
Seawater Solutions Ltd - Seawater Solutions Ltd, a social impact enterprise, is the product of a multi-year research initiative involving scientists from around the world seeking to disrupt conventional agriculture by introducing sustainable farming practices, which use seawater to grow salt-tolerant crops and build wetland ecosystems for environmental and climate resilience purposes.
Shrinking Footprints - Create environmentally friendly food for pets and are capitalising on the huge gap in the market of environmentally conscious pet owners by launching a range of pet food which has a significantly smaller environmental footprint than competing products. To achieve this, the business is introducing insect protein to cat/dog food!
Ten Bio Ltd - Ten Bio Ltd is a biotech spin‐out company from the University of Dundee which will provide a patent-pending human skin testing platform that closely mimics intact living skin as part of an ethical and economic route to market for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, resulting in reduced testing on animals.
Topolytics Ltd - More than 60% of the world’s waste ends its life in landfill or waste dump. Topolytics’ WasteMap® is a ‘downstream materials’ analytics platform which applies data science to make the world’s waste system more visible, so it is verifiable and through generating insights the value in material can be unlocked.
Touchlab - Touchlab is using cutting-edge electronic-skin to build a teleoperated robot avatars with applications in outer space and hazardous environments. With customers in the warehousing, green energy, and aerospace industry, we are the only Scottish team selected for ANA funded Avatar XPrize competition with aims to boost the Sottish space sector.
Utopi Limited - Utopi is an IoT enabled, smart buildings integrator that will disrupt the traditional approach of businesses to facilities management through the use of highly-skilled people, automated processes and leading-edge technology. We aim to optimise building performance for our clients, reducing capital/operational costs while, crucially, increasing sustainability.
*Loan Award only winners are being assessed at a separate funding assessment panel
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