A new partnership is aiming to boost the creation and growth of Scottish tech businesses ‘with a social or environmental mission’.
Techscaler – the Scottish Government’s flasgship tech education and support programme – will work with social enterprise The Ventures Lab to expand the reach of ‘mission’ or ‘impact-driven’ tech companies working to solve global challenges.
In 2025/26, The Ventures Lab aims to support 40 high-growth, impact-led businesses to grow and scale. This includes unlocking access to £2 million in Scottish Government loan investment through the Firstport Venture Catalyst Fund, helping mission-led businesses tackle some of the most pressing societal and environmental challenges.
Angie Lee, director of venture services, The Ventures Lab said: “By combining The Ventures Lab’s strengths in impact business support with Techscaler’s leading role in the tech startup space, we’re creating something far greater than the sum of its parts. It’s about building ventures that are investment-ready and impact-aligned and showing that values and viability go hand in hand.”
The partnership with Techscaler builds on a strong foundation of collaboration that The Ventures Lab has already developed with organisations such as Converge, Scottish EDGE, Firstport, and 19 Scottish universities. Together, these partnerships are building a pipeline of over 150 early-stage impact ventures.
Techscaler, the Scottish Government’s tech startup programme run by CodeBase, is already supporting over 1,000 tech startups across Scotland. Techscaler has other purpose-led collaborations in place, including its partnership with Sustainable Ventures, one of the world’s leading climate tech hubs. The new partnership will give ‘purpose-led founders’ direct access to The Ventures Lab dedicated programme, which includes tailored support from ideation to designing a revenue-generating business model, scaling and attracting investment.
Jennifer McInroy, head of partnerships, CodeBase, said: “We’re excited to work closely with The Ventures Lab to give tech founders greater access to tools and support that help them understand, measure and communicate the impact of their work. Embedding this thinking early, alongside core startup development, can help create a mindset shift across the tech sector, where impact becomes a meaningful part of how innovation is defined and valued.”
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: “Scotland has always been a nation of innovators, entrepreneurs and impact-makers. This strategic partnership between two of Scottish Government’s key economic growth programmes reflects the type of collaboration we need to see more of: focused, practical, and committed to supporting entrepreneurs and ventures delivering positive change both in Scotland and on the global stage.”
One company already benefiting from the support of both organisations is ProfessorME, an award-winning female-founded startup developing innovative education technology products. ProfessorMe has accessed monthly mentoring support from Techscaler, which helped the company develop its technical roadmap, while graduating from Techscaler’s accelerator programme in 2023.
Dr Kate Smith, CEO and co-founder of ProfessorMe, said: “Our AI professors can simultaneously teach tens of thousands of students in almost any language, and very cost effectively, a world where no one is left out of a university education. The business and technical support from Techscaler and The Ventures Lab has been invaluable to our journey and as a result we have been able to accelerate our product development.”
