The main function of Techscaler, the Scottish Government’s startup growth programme run by CodeBase, is to grow the economy by inspiring and helping more people to become startup founders in Scotland.
We do this by creating a platform that brings together space, education, community, mentorship, and fundraising pathways.
If you want to build a startup in Scotland, Techscaler will always have a next step, a signpost, or a connection for you. In terms of the numbers, the programme has already onboarded over 1,000 startup members, many of whom have gone on to raise money, make hires, and more.
Raising investment is one of the hardest things you can do, and we would never want to claim startup founders’ fundraising successes; with that in mind, it’s worth noting that Techscaler member companies have raised an impressive £50m in 2023.
Techscaler itself makes the effort to embody the startup spirit – always moving fast, iterating, seeking to better understand our market and how we can help best, making small bet experiments, measuring outcomes, pivoting, refining – rinse and repeat.
In this very spirit, Techscaler is itself taking a new step and has added a new feature: cost-effective international Techscaler pop-ups.
In February and now again in September, we have opened light touch Techscaler pop-up hubs in San Francisco, where Scottish founders work from a common location, pitch investors and customers, attend and present at meetups, and get to network and learn from Silicon Valley peers.
The feedback we received from San Francisco was great, founders were excited and investment connections were made.
So, we are doubling down and doing more.
In October, Scotland-based startup founders will travel to Singapore, working alongside local peers, pitching to investors, and engaging with potential customers. Scotland’s generous and experienced Global Scot community in Singapore are helping prepare the startups with their local knowledge so they hit the ground running.
Founders will also be attending the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH 2024) conference, which is one of Asia’s premier networking conferences.
The pop-ups seek to connect our Scottish tech ecosystem with other ecosystems around the world. Connecting ecosystems is the modern approach to economic development. It exposes local talent to global investors, which leads to inward investment. It helps local businesses open new markets and sell abroad, and plugs them into best practice trends and practitioners who are trying to do the same.
More concretely, the international hubs enable our startups and founders to learn about and establish new markets. Think about online travel site Skyscanner, founded in Scotland before opening its first international office in Singapore. From this base, a gateway into the Asia–Pacific (APAC) region, Skyscanner could access regional customers and build its business in Asia.
Of course, Skyscanner also went on to secure investment from Asia-based venture capital (VC) firms. And there are other examples of Scottish startups securing investment from APAC VCs, including pureLiFi – the world leader in the innovation and development of mobile communications tech that uses light to transmit data – being backed by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek.
By exposing our startups to best practice startup techniques from across the world, we can fulfil an important function, because if you want to compete internationally you have to be at least as good as the best startups in your sector, no matter where they are based worldwide.
