Deals
26.09: Edinburgh-based Skoogmusic has announced an online retail listing with John Lewis & Partners for its Skoog 2.0 musical instrument. The listing coincides with an addition to its product range, the iPhone accessory Skwitch. “It’s the first time that music creation, coding and accessibility have been combined into an iPhone accessory,” say its creators. “The secret to Skwitch is its brilliant, simple design: a sleek cuboid that clips easily onto iPhone, featuring a soft, expressive control button on top. Inside, innovative battery-free technology and wireless connectivity bring the device to life.”
20.09: French IoT specialist Kerlink has been chosen as hardware and software provider for IoT Scotland, a low-power, wide-area (LPWA) network for IoT devices. Kerlink will deliver up to 500 of its scalable Wirnet iBTS gateways to project leader Boston Networks over three years, along with its Wanesy Management Centre solution for remote real-time management of the gateways and overall network. The project will also incorporate Kerlink’s Wanesy Geolocation technology, which allows precise location of end-devices without GPS.
20.09: Dundee-based game developer Earthbound Games has secured £750,000 in equity funding. The finance will support the development and distribution of its flagship PC game, Axiom Soccer, which launches early next year. The investment has been led by board director Neil Heywood, who has extensive games industry experience, and is also on the board of real-time analytics company deltaDNA. Heywood was previously executive chairman and investor at VR audio company Two Big Ears, which was acquired by Facebook in 2016.
19.09: Storm ID, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and Seattle based risk prediction platform KenSci have been awarded co-funding of £750,000 by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, to develop a new care pathway for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. As the second most common cause of emergency hospital admissions, the project seeks to reduce these through remote patient monitoring and AI-enabled interventions. If successful, it could save the NHS across the UK a total of £1.4bn.
19.09: UK payments fintech, Modulr, has opened an office in Edinburgh to take advantage of the city’s burgeoning fintech scene and grow its software engineering, customer support, risk and compliance, and finance teams. Modulr recently completed its latest funding round, led by the UK’s leading digital venture builder, Blenheim Chalcot which brought the total investment in the company to £10.5m since its formation in January 2016.
18.09: Prodsight, an Edinburgh-based startup enabling businesses to gain insight from customer support conversation data has secured £115,000 in seed funding. The Royal Society of Edinburgh invested £45,000 in the company and a pre-seed round raised a further £70,000. Investors in this first round include a number of prominent Scottish angel investors such as Alistair Forbes, Rob Dobson, Judy Wilson and Andrew Barrie. Over half of the SeedHaus tech incubator partners have invested in the company, including Robin Knox and Paul Walton formerly of Intelligent Point of Sale.
13:09: FinTech Scotland has announced Prudential UK as its latest strategic partner. It IBM, Equifax, Pinsent Masons, Deloitte, Dentsu Aegis Network and Sopra Steria as strategic partners to progress the development of the fintech ecosystem in Scotland. Prudential’s managing director of Wealth Solutions, David Macmillan, will also join FinTech Scotland’s board.
11.09: Edge Testing Solutions announced it had won four contracts worth more than £17.5m with companies across the UK, comprising The Student Loans Company. Recently appointed managing director Sharon Hamilton said: “These new contracts are testament to the strong technical skills and sector experience our growing team delivers.”
07.09: Konrad Technologies, a leader in sensor testing of advanced driving assistance systems, including radar, lidar, and vision cameras required for driverless cars, is opening an office in Dunfermline.
06.09: Make it Social, the Edinburgh-based group booking platform, has signed a deal with Skiworld, the largest independent ski specialist in the UK.
04.09: Watford-based marketing technology specialist Socialicity is opening new offices in Glasgow, at 180 St Vincent Street, in a deal with building owners Northwood represented by Ryden and JLL.
Appointments
27.09: Glasgow, London and Amsterdam-based search and discovery technology firm Nalytics, has appointed Mac Exon-Taylor as business development director.
21.09: Colin Robertson, chief executive of bus and coach manufacture Alexander Dennis, has been appointed chair of Entrepreneurial Scotland. He takes over from Chris van der Kuyl, of 4J Studios, who was the founding chair and will continue to be involved in the organisation.
12.09: CityFibre has appointed Elaine Doherty as City Development Manager as it begins work on a £110m project in partnership with Vodaphone to transform digital infrastructure Edinburgh and Stirling.
Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP has announced the promotion of Joanne Ockrim and Martin O’Neill to Partner.