Scottish EDGE is the UK’s biggest business funding competition and is now in its 12th round. Each of the latest winners will take home up to a six-figure share of the nearly £1 million prize pot and will receive an all-encompassing package of support from Scottish EDGE’s partner organisations to help them fast-track and grow their business.
The winning businesses came from 20 Scottish EDGE finalists who pitched their business idea live at Stirling’s Macrobert Arts Centre on May 29 to a panel of business heavyweights made up of: Jim McColl OBE of Clyde Blowers, Steve Dunlop of Scottish Enterprise, Simon Hannah of Filshill, Maeve McMahon of Royal Bank of Scotland and Carol Beattie of Stirling Council. During the intense final, the judges deliberated over the various pitches before declaring 11 of the businesses winners.
Addressing the finalists prior to the awards announcement on June 14, Sir Tom Hunter, renowned Scottish entrepreneur and supporter of Scottish EDGE said: “It’s fantastic to support Scottish EDGE; the businesses that come through EDGE grow faster with less risk because EDGE is not just about money, but the embedded support on offer. EDGE businesses are the lifeblood of the Scottish economy and we are delighted to support you as you grow and prosper – Scotland needs many more like you!”
Scottish EDGE Round 12 winners:
Aurora Sustainability – Sets up demonstrative Circular Economy Biorefinery in clusters for social, private and public organisations, offering mentoring and trainingson the CE business model. From: Moray | Amount: £45,000
Broker Insights Ltd – A platform that provides insurers with powerful search capabilities to direct their sales resources to the right brokers, at the right time, for the right business. From: Dundee | Amount: £75,000
Cearban Ltd – An adventure wildlife tourism business, offering transformational experiences, such as swimming with basking sharks around the Inner Hebrides. From: Oban | Amount: £50,000
Guy & Beard Ltd – High quality barber shops made out of converted shipping containers in convenient locations, with free parking and affordable prices. From: Bishopton | Amount: £75,000
Just Venue Holding Ltd – An online platform that aims to socialise event space booking, by connecting event hosts and organizers with space owners and managers. From: Dundee | Amount: £50,000
MiAlgae Ltd – Developed a novel algae production to harvest Omega 3 oils frommicro-algae grown on waste water. From: Edinburgh | Amount: £100,000
Novosound – Sells novel, printed, ultrasound sensors to the industrial inspection, medical imaging and dental imaging markets. From: Paisley | Amount: £50,000
The Little Herb Farm – A fine food manufacturing business creating a range of sweet fruit vinegars using mainly its own herbs and a range of chilled dips. From: Fife | Amount: £40,000
The Start-up Drinks Lab Ltd – Provide manufacturing, packaging and storage solutions for small-medium sized soft drink companies for everything from “concept to shelf”. From: Glasgow | Amount: £75,000
Higgs EDGE winner:
Cytochroma – Combines state of the art, automated technology and pioneering science to generate stem cell derived liver cells that model human physiology. From: Edinburgh | Amount: £150,000
Creative EDGE winner:
Curious Chip Ltd – Creator of Pip – a handheld computer that combinesprogrammability, expandability and high-performance graphics into a portable, attractive and easy-to-use package. From: Glasgow | Amount: £50,000
Young EDGE winners:
404 Ink – 404 Ink is the multi-award winning independent publisher of books and literary magazines. Dubbed the ‘nasty women shaking up the book industry’, they were named the Emerging Publishers of the Year and #1 in the List Hot 100 for cultural influencers in 2017. From: Edinburgh | Amount: £10,000
Fodilicious Ltd – An innovative food business based in Scotland providing the UK’s first gluten free and dairy free freshly prepared meal options which follow the low FODMAP diet – suitable for people who suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and other gut related illnesses. From: Livingston | Amount: £10,000
Phox Water Ltd – Phox Water’s slogan ‘Drink Clean’ doesn’t only relate to the filtered water its product creates, it is a reminder that the water we consume has a carbon footprint. Phox’s product suite is designed to let people avoid bottled water and the harm it does to our environment. From: Glasgow | Amount: £15,000
The Turing Trust – A social enterprise that is innovatively reusing ICTs to provide education and training in Scotland and rural African communities. By re-imagining the use of technology, The Turing Trust are pushing towards a Circular Economy, building capability at home and creating sustainable incomes and improved digital education access. From: Edinburgh | Amount: £10,000
Tipsy Unicorn Sweets – Tipsy Unicorn Sweets prides itself on creating delicious sweets using all natural ingredients. Since launching the Rock Rose Gin and Tonic Jelly ranges, the business has struggled to keep up with demand. This has led to discussions with a third party about outsourcing production. From: Nairn | Amount: £10,000
Token Zero – Token Zero is developing a remote environmental monitor for rental properties, in order to inform landlords and property managers of potentially damaging situations developing in their premises, allowing them to intervene early and save money. From: Glasgow | Amount: £10,000
Udrafter – An on demand and real-time student recruitment platform where local businesses can post one off jobs to be completed by skilled students within hours, even minutes. Udrafter is Scotland’s first dedicated one-off student jobs platform that provides a wide range of different student skill sets, all in one friendly platform that saves businesses time and money. From: Aberdeen | Amount: £10,000
Wildcard EDGE winners:
Alterwaste Ltd – A business which turns industrial waste by-products into new sustainable materials. Alterwaste’s first product is a fully compostable material made from industrial eggshell waste with the potential to replace plastic and other non-sustainable materials in a range of industries, from cosmetics to construction. From: Edinburgh | Amount: £15,000
Farm-Hand Ltd – Builds flexible precision irrigation products that enable farmers to irrigate in a ‘right-volume, right-time’ approach in water-scarce regions. The company works for economic uplift, scare resource conservation, social cohesion and labour freedom in the agriculture space. From: Longniddry | Amount: £10,000
Hearing Diagnostics Ltd – Hearing Diagnostics aims to develop more accurate hearing screening technology to enable early detection and diagnosis of hearing loss. The business’s technology combines the use of novel algorithms and research methods to ensure high accuracy and reliability of screening results. From: Edinburgh | Amount: £10,000
Inrobin Ltd – Inrobin provides predictive maintenance and risk management solutions to industrial companies. Manufacturers can connect their industrial assets to Inrobin’s digital platform, which analyses the data and gives new insights, these insights serve to create a risk profile that results in lower insurance premiums. From: Edinburgh | Amount: £10,000
Scrumptious Garden – This business turns underused urban land into attractive, productive, market gardens. Scrumptious Garden partners with city councils and housing associations, gaining free access to land that is otherwise a costly drain in return for creating beautiful and welcoming spaces. From: Livingston | Amount: £10,000
SecondPerspective – An innovative rehabilitation product based company. Focusing on product development and user experience provided through SP’s product range. The first solution to be brought to market is an intelligent pressure cuff system employing blood flow restriction therapy for use in rehabilitation. From: Edinburgh | Amount: £10,000
Thermoelectric Conversion Systems Ltd – Proposes a scalable clean-technology to fill the void in present cooling technologies and aims to target data-centre equipment suppliers to develop highly-efficient industry-leading technology. By employing thermoelectric-coolers driven by novel power converters, data-centre cooling efficiency can increase by 50 per cent. From: Glasgow | Amount: £10,000
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