Glasgow City Innovation District has launched its first cohort of businesses for their Early-Stage Growth programme as part of its Venture Studio Impact Pillar.
The GCID Venture Studio has four pillars of activity – Challenge, Make, Innovate and Impact. This is the second programme of support launched to assist the city’s innovation ecosystem to develop new ideas, products, and business models for high-growth companies.
The Early-Stage Growth programme is delivered in partnership with Strathclyde Inspire and provides fully funded support to innovation driven enterprises based within the Glasgow City area who are aiming to scale their business, raise finance/investment and develop their sales/revenue model. The support comprises of face-to-face sessions with experienced mentors and individual support from corporate finance, with a kick off session taking place today (3rd September). A showcase event will be held during Glasgow Tech Week in May 2025, where participants will talk about their progress and the difference it has made to their business.
The inaugural cohort was chosen from a competitive selection of applicants. Alisdair Gunn, Glasgow City Innovation District Director, said: “We’re delighted with the calibre of applicants for the GCID Venture Studio Impact Pillar. We have nine innovative companies who are ready to take the next step to scale their sales revenues and venture investments and we’re delighted to help them achieve their growth ambitions.”
The first cohort of companies taking part in the programme are:
BGR Training Ltd
BGR develop a Fitness tool for home, gym or outdoors. The bars, grips and rings are a unique product design to the fitness trend of suspension trainers allowing people to workout in outdoor parks, or enabling athletes to exercise whilst travelling.
Caribbean Goods Ltd
Caribbean Goods import green coffee to the UK. Their goal is to promote transparent online trading, ensuring truly ethical coffee. They achieve this by sourcing their coffee directly from farmers they have personally met, which allows them to circumvent the industry issues that many farmers face and provide them with the fair work and pay they deserve.
Education Evolved Ltd
Education Evolved’s video gaming and immersive services make education engaging, accessible, equitable, and inclusive. Tailored to meet the needs of their clients, they use technologies and pedagogies to create an exceptional and consistent experiences.
Kinoro Ltd
Kinoro is an early years edtech SAAS startup, championing a gold-standard for family wellbeing practices.
NatQuest Ltd
NatQuest is a supply chain technology company that leverages on innovation and emerging technology to transform supply chains. They offer a purpose-built AI-powered platform to connect their clients with a global network of procurement and supply chain experts for contract and project-based work.
Northern Light Microscopy Ltd
Northern Light Microscopy are focused on taking advanced imaging hardware out of the research labs and putting it in the hands of the life science researchers that can put them to the best use. They have developed a super-resolution microscopy technology with small footprint which can be used on the lab bench or as an add-on to existing microscopes and with significantly reduced costs compared to currently available high-end systems.
Nudge Innovations Ltd
Nudge Innovations are a pioneering Scottish start-up dedicated to driving behaviour change that eliminates the throwaway culture. The offer innovative technologies that make it convenient to live a sustainable life and help organisations transition to zero waste by making it easier for people to switch to reusable cups.
SenGuard Ltd
Senguard is a security subscription software that keeps over 50s safe online. Dedicated to making the internet safe and accessible for vulnerable user Senguard has evolved the technical and experiential aspects of their cybersecurity product to deliver pre-emptive protection against multimedia and social media scams and fraud.
Whitebox Dental (Oralcare Direct Ltd)
Oralcare Direct Ltd trading as Whitebox Dental are the chosen orthodontic laboratory partner to hundreds of UK & Overseas dental clinics. Whitebox continue to develop their innovation processes for orthodontic practices.
This project is funded by Glasgow City Council and UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.