Techscaler – Scotland’s nationwide education and mentoring programme for tech startups and founders – is looking to create more overseas hubs.
The flagship £42 million Scottish Government-backed programme is working with the government’s international development team to expand its horizons globally.
The scheme launched a pilot hub in San Francisco in the US in February, and is now exploring the possibility of a similar arrangement for Singapore.
That move would help Scottish founders gain a foothold into the Asia Pacific market, which is forecast to grow by 7.3% per year from 2024 to 2027, according to analysts Forrester.
The development was announced this week by Professor Mark Logan, the Scottish Government’s chief entrepreneurial adviser at the EIE24 tech conference.
Following the event, he also said that Dubai – when asked about its suitability, given that it ranked fourth last year in foreign direct investment terms for the global tech sector – could be a ‘good candidate’ for future growth.
Logan – who authored the Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review – explained that international development for Techscaler was now a ‘model’ being pursued by the programme.
“Decision-wise, there are various excellent locations for this model,” he said. “We’ve chosen Singapore because it certainly qualifies in that category, and because we’ve considerable interest there in supporting this experiment.
“However, ideally, I’d like us to set up more centres over time, and Dubai could be a good candidate.”
Logan said Techscaler – operated by Edinburgh-headquartered CodeBase – was working with Scottish Development International, the government enterprise agency, on the plans.
If successful, there could be a ‘pop-up’ location opened in Singapore – which ranked second after London for tech sector FDI last year – during “this calendar year”.
