The annual survey taking the temperature of the Scottish tech sector’s vibrant startup community has been launched for 2022.
The EIE Scottish Startup, conducted by the University of Edinburgh’s Bayes Centre, will ask startup and scale-up founders and CEOs about investor engagement, growth strategy, economic outlook, Scottish ecosystem support, hiring plans, returning to the office, and new ways of working post-pandemic.
The survey has been running since 2017 in association with the Freer Consultancy, and targets a sample of Scottish tech companies drawn from both the EIE alumni and the wider startup community in Scotland. The EIE investor readiness programme delivered by the Bayes Centre has helped over 540 companies raise more than £1.1 billion since 2008.
While the 2021 survey had a strong focus on the challenges and opportunities presented by the pandemic, this year’s survey will examine how startups are navigating their way out of pandemic times.
Karen Wood, director of enterprise, Bayes Centre, said: “The last couple of years have been challenging for so many in business, including in the startup world, but we know that startups are a resilient and creative breed, and that investors continue to invest in innovation – all themes we expect to come through in this year’s survey.”
Dave Hughes, CEO and co-founder of remote sensor specialist Novosound, an EIE alumni company who featured at EIE London earlier this year, said: “The results of the startup survey are a great barometer of the Scottish tech ecosystem. It has helped me to navigate our next stage of growth and, as a founder, realise that other founders share many of the same aspirations and concerns.”
Michael Moore, director general at the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA), said: “This is an exciting time to be investing in tech, especially in Scotland. Shared insight is vital to growth companies and their investors across the country – this survey gets right to the heart of the key issues and its findings will be invaluable to all of us.”