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Edinburgh
Scotland’s capital city has a strong startup scene stemming from a variety of factors including world leading universities, a long history of successful software businesses (Cisco, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and Amazon) and high quality of life.
Recently, there have been a number of incredible success stories emerging from Edinburgh, with Skyscanner, FreeAgent and FanDuel all growing fast. Skyscanner are not only a Future Fifty company but they’re also the first Scottish web company to be valued at $1bn and have recently pledged to always have their HQ based in Auld Reekie. They have since been joined in the billion dollar club by FanDuel.
Alongside the great cluster benefits displayed above (amongst the highest of all featured in the report), cost of living was cited by the CEO of Administrate – a software-based business management tool – as important to the vibrant tech scene: “Edinburgh is a great place to live, and cost of living is quite low so you can easily get a company off the ground”.
There are over 17,000 people in digital employment in Edinburgh and local businesses are more likely to seek support from other members of the community than in any other cluster. Furthermore, 82% reported having seen revenue rise in the past year.
Companies can receive great support from incubator programmes such as TechCube and CodeBase. This is coupled with the great array of available talent produced by The University of Edinburgh.
Support:
- Scottish Enterprise – provides training and support to high growth companies in Scotland
- CodeBase – UK’s largest technology incubator
- The Melting Pot provide resources for social change makers
- Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation brings low carbon leaders and practitioners from business, finance and the public sector together to turn good ideas into reality
- The Creative Exchange, collaborative business space for digital and creative innovation
- UP – help entrepreneurs to increase customer acquisition and secure smart investment
Funding:
- Small Business Loan Fund – an interest free loan of up to £2,500 to help entrepreneurs get their idea off the ground
- Archangel, Scotland’s “largest” angel syndicate. Made of up over 100 investor members who invest around £10m per year in early-stage Scottish businesses in return for an equity share
- Entrepreneurial Spark (ESpark) accelerator. Suitable for early stage and growing ventures trading for up to four years
Holoxica is a startup specialising in 3D tech including digital holograms and holographic video displays. The holograms are aimed at medical imaging, scientific visualisation or engineering design.
Rockstar North is home to the Grand Theft Auto Series and are the holder of 7 Guinness World records including being the ”Fastest entertainment property to gross $1 billion”
TVSquared is a real-time TV attribution platform in the industry; delivering improved campaign performance for advertisers.
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