🦷 Calcivis & EnteroBiotix Raise, Glasgow Tech Week, Funding Down
Plus finalists announced for the UK startup awards finalists from Scotland
Here's your Campfire for the 8th of April, 2024.
💼 This issue of Campfire is sponsored by Shepherd and Wedderburn's initiative to supercharge start-ups and scale-ups. Be sure to follow the Start to Scale LinkedIn page for useful videos and posts designed to help founders.
🌊 Updates
💰 Glasgow-based EnteroBiotix (microbiome medicine) closed a £27 million funding round made up of £15.7m in equity funding, as well as the conversion of £11.6m in loan notes into equity. The round saw contributions from seasoned life science investors Thairm Bio and Kineticos Life Sciences, alongside the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB), and other existing investors such as Scottish Enterprise. TH TS DGT IN SS Lnkdn
📉 According to new research from Tracxn, Startup funding in the UK faced a 19% drop in 2024’s first quarter, with late-stage investments taking the hardest hit. It shows that British startups as a whole raised $2.5bn in the year’s first quarter, a drop from Q4 2023’s $30.9bn (£24.57bn). DGT UKTN
🦷 Edinburgh-based dental biotech firm Calcivis raised £5 million in funding led by £4 million from the Scottish National Investment Bank, along with an additional £1 million from IFS Maven Equity Finance managed by Maven Capital Partners to push its innovative dental technology into the US market. SS ACS DGT
📢 The first-ever Tech Week in Scotland is set to take place between 13-18 May in Glasgow as it will see a series of conferences, panels, breakfast sessions, workshops, and networking events taking place across the city, supported by Glasgow City Innovation District (GCID), with its headline event, Glasgow Tech Fest, happening on Thursday 16 May. Learn more here. DGT SS
💡Research: “Scotland must normalise female founder investment”
According to a research published by Young Company Finance (YCF) last month, investment into female-founded businesses fell from an already low base compared to male-led businesses in 2023 with the median amount raised by women per investment round less than a quarter of what their male counterparts had secured. Read the report here. TS
📣 UK Startup Awards Scotland 2024 Finalists have been announced across several categories, including: FlyHighland (Airline), Ujamaa Spice (CPG spice), Project Harmless (ecomm sustainable poo bags), Wild Strong (national outdoor activity classes), Generalist.World (community for generalists, BabyReady (pregnancy financial planning), Òir (soap), MailVol (email marketing platform), EmergencyLocate (location tech), Mask Logic (fitted masks from the construction industry), Seluna (ML-powers paediatric sleep disorder diagnosis), Gut Wealth (CPG gut biome vitamins), Yaldi Games (producing a foraging video game), Gradatim (picture-books for kids to communicate disability and illness news), Gloriah (ecomm menopausal skincare and personal care products), Aphelion Industries (space debris cleanup), Grand Bequest (vacant building discovery platform), rethink carbon (land-use platform), CCU (carbon capture technology), loveelectric (electric car salary sacrifice scheme), Lupovis (cybersecurity SaaS), Feetr (stock discovery platform), Crewdog (job boards for the TikTok generation), Three Robins (CPG oat milk), Quas (CPG canned kvas), OK Positive (employee mental health platform), Ansearch (multi saas platform search), WellFish Tech (aquaculture analysis), Tuggs (CPG dog food), and many more! Check out all the rest here.
📣 Asks & Offers
⚙️Do you dream about prototyping? The University of St Andrews has just opened its Rapid Prototyping Centre with facilities like HD 3D Printing Studio with premium materials, a 3D design office suite, electromechanical engineering equipment and machinery, and an electronics design studio (clean room environment). They offer services like high quality 3D scanning, stereolithography, selective laser sintering, fused deposition modelling and much much more. Campfire readers get a 10% discount (just quote CAMP10). Email them here, and find out more here.
👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.
✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!
📅 Events
📌 08/04, 18:30 🗺️ Inverness: Tech Meetup Inverness: Whether you are a seasoned professional or just tech curious. Whether you've been to meetings before or not. Whether you are looking to make new contacts, learn from others or share your expertise. Please book a ticket on Eventbrite as places are limited. MORE INFO
💼 09/04, 09:30 🗺️ Stirling: World of Work: Organisation Culture and Values for Founders: This half-day, in-person, interactive workshop in Codebase Stirling will be co-facilitated by James and Jane from the World of Work Project. Like all of their workshops, this session will be highly interactive and will include relevant theories, practical applications and top-tips. MORE INFO
🤝 09/04, 13:00 🗺️ Stirling: Marketing Meetup with Scunnered Digital [Stirling]: Join us for a six-month event series dedicated to elevate your marketing skills, build connections and exchange ideas with fellow marketers. MORE INFO
🎯 10/04, 18:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Startup Founders Meetup - April 2024: Each month, we'll have a combination of tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs and plenty of opportunities to network with other founders, potential cofounders, and investors. MORE INFO
📈 11/04, 17:30 🗺️ Stirling: In Conversation with Sales Geek: Join us at CodeBase for an event focused on 'How to Build a Scalable Sales Strategy for Startups'. Dive into the world of sales within a welcoming and supportive ambiance. This unique interactive session led by the Sales Geek team, will shed light on practical insights and provide actionable advice customized specifically for the needs of startups and businesses. MORE INFO
🛠️ 11/04, 18:00 🗺️ Glasgow: AI Builders Meetup: Join us at the AI Builders event where we explore the latest trends and innovations in artificial intelligence technology! MORE INFO
👩🏻💻 16/04, 17:30 🗺️ Stirling: Digital Skills 4 Girls [Stirling]: Digital Skills 4 Girls is a monthly workshop for girls and non-binary people who want to learn new digital skills or develop existing skills. The recommended age for attendance is 10-15. MORE INFO
👩🏻💻 16/04, 17:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Digital Skills 4 Girls: [Edinburgh] Pixel Art: This session is led by Charlotte Pang, and we'll be learning about pixel art and designing characters! MORE INFO
🎯 17/04, 19:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: 'Reverse' Pitch Party: Startup Accelerator Showcase & Mixer by Startup Grind x Geovation Scotland: When you're building your startup, how do you know which accelerator is right for the problems you're facing, and the knowledge you need? To demystify what's on offer, we're teaming up with Geovation Scotland for an evening of 'reverse pitching' where we'll hear from some of Scotland's top accelerators, followed by an exclusive fireside chat with Janani Prabhakaran of Unbaggaged! MORE INFO
🏳️🌈 18/04, 13:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Lunch & Learn: LGBTQ+ Visibility in the Workplace: Join us for an engaging workshop exploring LGBTQ+ visibility in the workplace, in partnership with Scottish Trans and the Equality Network. Delve into discussions on workplace rights and strategies for enhancing visibility and networking opportunities. MORE INFO
🤝 18/04, 17:00 🗺️ Dundee: Meet the Investors - Raising to Scale in a Challenging Environment: Join us for an evening of community networking and the opportunity to hear directly from investors, lenders and other ecosystem builders. MORE INFO
🔌 23/04, 12:00 🗺️ Dunfermline: Unplugged Dunfermline: This event aims to bring together entrepreneurs, techies, creatives, students, investors, and other regional stakeholders to network and share ideas. MORE INFO
🧰 23/04, 10:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: In-Person IPHatchathon® UK 2024: Join our FREE in-person IPHatchathon®, a 3-hour 1-on-1 mentoring workshop where our seasoned mentors will validate your business model and offer actionable advice on how you could integrate readily available patents/ technologies we have to offer. MORE INFO
🔌 24/04, 12:00 🗺️ Galashiels: Unplugged @ Hometown Hub, Stow: In partnership with Hometown Hub, this event is for anyone looking to learn more about what Techscaler is and what it has to offer the tech sector in the Borders. This event aims to bring together entrepreneurs, techies, creatives, students, investors, and other regional stakeholders to network and share ideas. MORE INFO
🗣 24/04, 12:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Presentation Club: Join us for a supportive and friendly afternoon of public speaking practice for people in the tech startup world. MORE INFO
🔌 24/04, 16:00 🗺️ Aboyne: Unplugged Aboyne: This event aims to bring together entrepreneurs, techies, creatives, students, investors, and other regional stakeholders to network and share ideas. MORE INFO
💬 24/00, 18:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Entrepreneurs Social Club (ESC) - April 2024: Welcome to our monthly Entrepreneurs Social Club (ESC) gathering! Skip the talks, presentations and lectures - in favour of going straight to the bar, where real connections are made. MORE INFO
🤝 25/04, 09:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Bridging Communities - The Extended Edition: A one-day event to bridge communities, spark connections and inspire action. Co-designed discussions, creative workshops, insightful stories, and more. MORE INFO
🗽 25/04, 09:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Breaking the US: Office Hours: Best practices on approaching the US market and what tools and connections are available to support you. MORE INFO
🗽 25/04, 10:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: Approaching the US Market with City of Mentor: Best practices on approaching the US market and what tools and connections are available to support you. MORE INFO
🚀 25/04, 12:30 🗺️ Online: Virtual Speed Networking: An online speed networking event where you can get to know others in the tech community across Scotland. We’ll have some questions ready for you to get the conversations going and keep things moving so you get the chance to speak to as many people as possible. MORE INFO
🌐 25/04, 17:00 🗺️ Stirling: The Social at CodeBase Stirling: Open to everyone, this is an in-person celebration to connect and catch up with the CodeBase and Central Scotland community. MORE INFO
👔 25/04, 17:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Save the Date: Navigating Your Next Career Leap in Product: Roadmap to Job Search Success: Navigate with Precision, Land with Confidence!"A Product job search work shop to help you shape your CV & approach to the market, uncover interview secrets and proven strategies for you to approach the job market in 2024! MORE INFO
📊 25/04, 18:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Data Science and AI inaugural meetup: Everyone is encouraged to attend from across the Data Science realm whether you work in a small startup or a large corporate, if you are researching state of the art multimodal vision-language models in academia or just getting to grips with linear regression! MORE INFO
🍽️ 25/04, 18:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Dinners: Where founders & execs of product startups relax together and connect with peers over food and drinks. MORE INFO
🖼️ 30/04, 17:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Big Picture AI Safety: "Good" Futures and Dangers en Route by The Melting Pot: Part of The Melting Pot's Spring - Summer AI & Social Innovation events series. The event will provide a general context of where we are in AI development, what the latest advances are and work toward some big questions that concern social innovators: what are the key threats behind the use of AI? What are the distinctive characteristics of Scotland's AI landscape? And above all, how would look a "good" future for us in our complex relationship with AI and what can you do about it? MORE INFO
👥 30/04, 18:00 🗺️ Dundee: Dundee Data Meetup: Welcome to the monthly recurring Dundee Data Meetup, a vibrant community-driven event that brings together curious learners, data enthusiasts and professionals to explore the captivating world of data and its applications. MORE INFO
🎯 Deadlines
🗺️ 6 May 2024: Geovation Scotland Accelerator. Application here.
🇬🇧 Upcoming Innovate UK deadlines:
Unlocking nature positive private investment Applications close 10 April
UK-Switzerland CR&D Round 2 Applications close 1 May
UK - Germany Bilateral: Collaborative R&D Round 3 Applications close 3 June
Are we missing your event or deadline? 👉 Submit it here!
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That’s all for this week - have a great one!
Team 🔥 Campfire