Employment & Investment Minister celebrates Scottish entrepreneurship at 24th EDGE Awards
Employment & Investment Minister celebrates Scottish entrepreneurship at 24th EDGE Awards
- Tom Arthur MSP attends ceremony as winners take home £1.5 million in prize money -
One of Scotland’s most prestigious business awards returned for their 24th round yesterday as 37 winners took home £1.5 million in prize money from Scottish EDGE.
The awards ceremony took place in the Royal Bank of Scotland Conference Centre in Gogarburn, Edinburgh, and united forward-thinking entrepreneurs from across the country.
Tom Arthur MSP, Minister for Employment & Investment, delivered an opening speech celebrating the awards’ significance for Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Veteran awards categories returned for the 24th round, with the £75,000 Scale EDGE Award, supported by Royal Bank of Scotland, going to international football fan experience disrupter, Triptix Ltd. Meanwhile, MedTech-focused ventures MedAscend and SimPat were among those victorious in the Scottish Enterprise supported Young EDGE category, which offers grant awards for companies whose founders are under the age of 30, as the top £15,000 winners. Those successful in Wild Card, which provides a grant to pre-trading businesses, included Seaweed Services, who received the category’s Ailsa Reliability Solutions supported £10,000 award.
The STV supported award of £70,000 plus £75,000 worth of ad airtime was given to sustainable bedding brand, Ava Innes, while Gut Wealth emerged as winner of the Scottish Government backed Pathways category, winning £100,000 for an innovative bacteria-based digestive health supplement.
Round 24 also saw the return of the £70,000 Circular Economy EDGE Award, which is supported by Zero Waste Scotland, and went to The Bettii Pod Ltd for its world’s first, free to use menstrual cup and disc washer plumbed into the cubicles of away-from-home toilets. Pride Outside, who educate and empower workplaces to achieve their inclusion ambitions, won £75,000 in the Social Enterprise category, supported by the Postcode Innovation Trust.
Elsewhere, the Creative EDGE Award, facilitated by support from Creative UK, which champions, connects and promotes the development of the creative industries across the United Kingdom, gave a boost of £75,000 to premier video game and film art development studio, Wardog Studios.
Judith Cruickshank, MD Commercial Mid-Market at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said:
“Scottish EDGE continues to show what can be achieved when the Scotland entrepreneurial ecosystem works together with leading private and public sector organisations. Once again Royal Bank of Scotland is delighted to have supported the Scale EDGE Awards and to host the final here at our headquarters in Gogarburn.
“Scotland remains a capital of entrepreneurial energy and continues to prosper and the Scottish EDGE geographical reach and sector spread illustrates this. Triptix is a fine example of what is being achieved and it was an honour to present them with the Scale EDGE award. We look forward to following their success and the other winners this year.”
Jane Martin, Managing Director of Innovation and Investment at Scottish Enterprise said:
“Congratulations to all of this year’s winners, especially those in the Young EDGE category, which we’re proud to support again for round 24.
“Entrepreneurship and innovation are vital to Scotland’s ongoing economic success and – with such a high calibre of EDGE participant again in 2024 – the future looks very bright indeed. By supporting the winners at start of their journey we aim to develop Scotland’s scaling businesses of tomorrow.”
Sir Tom Hunter, entrepreneur and philanthropist, said:
“The only way to grow an economy is to support and build high growth businesses; Scottish EDGE is a prime mover in that arena - we have seen countless examples of these early-stage businesses go to immense scale. In my view Scottish EDGE is the most cost-effective means for Government and the private sector together to sow the seeds of a vibrant economy.”
Evelyn McDonald, CEO of Scottish EDGE, said:
“It’s an honour for us to continue to help Scottish businesses to fulfil their potential. By investing in such a wide variety of businesses, involved in industries as diverse as games, tech, healthcare and renewables, the 24th round of our awards is putting its faith in the huge scope for success contained within our country’s business community. Once again, we thank the organisations which continue to support us in this endeavour and look forward to seeing how this year’s winners develop and grow in the future”.
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 winners (alphabetical)
Scottish EDGE winners
532 Design - £75,000 - Dundee - 532 Design strives to create globally recognised, design-led sports games that bring true value and enjoyment to players in an engaging and responsible manner.
Airspection - £100,000 – Glasgow and West - Provides remote drone services for hard-to-reach infrastructure (offshore wind). The drones offer long-range, extended hover for efficient, safe, and cost-effective services in harsh environments.
Bebello Ltd - £100,000 – Edinburgh and the Lothians - Bebello create incredible time-saving products that new parents need.
Bespoke Fabrics Ltd - £65,000 – STV Award – Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth - Ava Innes, the premium brand helping people sleep better with UK-made sustainable bedding range including a unique patented cashmere-filled duvet, wool pillows and relaxation accessories.
Cleanifiq Ltd - £100,000 – Glasgow and West - Cleanifiq.com is a price comparison website for cleaners. It helps people and businesses save time and money when it comes to finding cleaners by comparing quotes
Gutsy Health - £100,000 – Pathways – Edinburgh and the Lothians - Gut WealthÆ is an innovative bacteria-based digestive health supplement that helps the 1 in 20 people suffering with bloating and inflammation by improving bowel regularity.
Mena - £70,000 – Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth - A scientist, smallholder and keen herbologist, who works with plants, medicinal and culinary herbs to create products that relieve menopause symptoms and support better health.
North Bridge - £75,000 – Edinburgh and the Lothians - NORTH BRIDGE MEDIA creates, develops and produces primarily scripted television, bringing talented people together and bridging genres to deliver outstanding, entertaining content from Scotland.
Seluna Ltd - £70,000 loan – Glasgow and West - Seluna is a Scottish med-tech startup, developing medical software and wearable technology to support doctors to remotely diagnose and monitor paediatric sleep and respiratory disorders.
SENGUARD - £75,000 – Glasgow and West - The most valuable and most targeted digital demographic are +65s. Unlike other security subscriptions, SENGUARD stops online threats before they even reach the users device(s).
The Bettii Pod Ltd - £70,000 loan – Circular Economy – Ayrshire - Bettii is a world first, an installed, free to use, menstrual cup and disc washer plumbed into the cubicles of away from home toilets
Triptix Ltd - £75,000 – Scale EDGE - Edinburgh and the Lothians - Triptix finds the cheapest offers for UK/I football fans who want to attend games abroad.
Wardog Studios - £75,000 - Wardog Studios is a premier art development studio with a global reputation for providing best in industry weapons and vehicles for videogames and film.
Your Spin Ltd - £50,000 – Edinburgh and the Lothians - YourSpin is a data-driven tech platform using gamification and instant gratification to provide brands with the tools they need to run continuous highly personalised campaigns.
Social Enterprise EDGE Winners
Pride Outside - £75,000 – Glasgow - Pride Outside are LGBTQ+ inclusion experts who help organisations achieve their inclusion ambitions through specialist training, consultancy and coaching.
Wild Card Winners
B&B Cart˘ns - £10,000 – Edinburgh - B&B Cart˘ns develops original Scottish animation IP with global appeal, leveraging international co-productions and expanding into merchandise, books, and games through strategic partnerships.
Digitech Innovation Limited T/A beelineMSKÆ - £10,000 – Edinburgh - Have created the IP for beelineMSKÆ, a digital self-assessment for patients with muscle / joint conditions, partnering with healthcare organisations who require this digital/AI platform content.
Elansu Ltd - £15,000 – Glasgow - Elansu designs and manufactures high-impact sports bras specifically engineered for fuller-bust, small-band women, addressing a significant market gap with innovative, supportive, inclusive and sustainable products
HUID - £10,000 – Oban - HUID creates food preserving, home compostable alternatives to single use plastic food packaging using an overlooked and abundant source of food waste - onion skins.
Kinteicolor - £10,000 – Glasgow - Kineticolor software enables scientists to use any camera as a non-contact process monitoring tool, alternative to capital-intensive probe-based analytics that dominate the $23 billion market.
Kyle Mcpherson (Ailsa Reliability Award) - £10,000 – Oban - Seaweed Services is a company focused on revolutionising the seaweed farming and processing industry.
Northern Light Microscopy - £10,000 – Glasgow - Empowering life-scientists to make the bioscience discoveries of tomorrow by democratizing access to advanced microscopy with our suite of accessible cost-effective, compact advanced imaging
PRO-DISPENSE LTD - £10,000 – Stirling - A protein machine that dispenses a smooth blend of protein and other key supplements such as creatine, on demand whenever the user requires.
Young EDGE
Creator Campus - £10,000 – Edinburgh - Creator Campus is a digital platform designed to support early-stage entrepreneurs, helping universities build engaged entrepreneurship ecosystems that generate successful businesses with strong teams.
Fair Feast - £10,000 – Pitlochry - Fair Feast is a social enterprise that provides food banks with donations of venison, funded by wholesale sales.
MedAscend - £15,000 – Dundee - A training platform allowing medical students to improve their communication skills, ability to diagnose and create tailored treatment plans through virtual consultations with AI patients.
Out N About - £10,000 – St Andrews - A university social network designed to foster meaningful, real-life connections among students, with the mission to combat the growing loneliness epidemic on campuses.
Project Neuro Ltd - £10,000 – Elgin - Project Neuro provides specialist movement and exercise classes for those living with Long Term Neurological Conditions. Creating a social and active hub for the community.
Regeno - £10,000 – Alloa - A single-blade self-installing wind generator to reduce the lifecycle cost of wind power.
Scotia Biotech - £10,000 – Glasgow - Biotech company developing a portfolio of precision medicine, personalised healthcare medical diagnostic devices and therapeutics
SimPat - £15,000 – Edinburgh - SimPat is a novel AI-Powered online medical education platform for future medical professionals providing practice resources including simulated patient experiences.
Skin in the Game - £10,000 – Edinburgh - Skin in the Game provides a holistic-data driven allergen and irritant identification technology to users via an app.
SolarSub Ltd - £10,000 – Edinburgh - A R&D business offering floating solar panel solutions that enhance output through cooling and address environmental concerns by reducing evaporation and algae blooms.
Sunsave Solutions - £10,000 – Glasgow - Sunsave Solutions increases access to solar electricity in low-income female-led or female-majority households in Sub-Saharan Africa (Cameroon) through distributed entry-level solar home systems.
Victoria Gordon Art - £10,000 – Acharacle - Watercolour wildlife art and custom pet portraits, hand printed on premium homeware and gifts. Inspired by Scotland’s wildlife and made eco-consciously, in the home studio.
Vocabua - £10,000 – Glasgow - AI-based language learning app using proprietary algorithms to deliver personalised, effective learning with gradual vocabulary expansion, focusing on memory retention for all skill levels.
WIZARDRIGHTS LTD (t/a STARX MEDIA) - £10,000 – Glasgow - STARX MEDIA empowers top creators on Snapchat through personalized support, driving engagement, revenue growth, and expanding influence with a global, multilingual team.