🧗♀️ EDGE Announced, 1nhaler raise, giving all your profits to charity?
Here's your Campfire for the 4th of December, 2023.
💼 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 & Opinions
🏆 Scottish EDGE Awards announced: Taking place in Glasgow for the first time since 2019, there were £1.5 million in funding opportunities to 38 Scottish businesses at the 22nd round of the competition. Winners included Brose Oats (Oat Milk), Conneckt Charging (EV charging network), Ansearch (cross-app search for businesses) and more. Full list here. IN ACS SBN TS
🫁 Edinburgh-based startup 1nhaler (cardboard-based inhaler to deliver drugs to patients) has secured a £2m investment led by Archangels. UKTN SS IN ACS TS
⛷️ Maison Sport, (platform connecting ski enthusiasts with professional instructors) raised £3.1 million investment round led by an unnamed private investment firm and angel investors. Previous investors included Gareth Williams and Kevin Byrne. SBN TH
👨🏿💻Edinburgh-based Knowvate Hub in collaboration with Startup Grind Scotland and Black Professionals Scotland, unveiled “Include & Inspire Business Series,” aimed at educating and empowering Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities about entrepreneurship opportunities in Scotland. Funded by the Ecosystem Fund from the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise, SBN DGT
📢 Edinburgh-based Ingenious Audio (audio tech company), secured a six figure funding round to expand its patented Wi-Fi audio technology known as “Fi-Live”, led by current shareholders, Kelvin Capital, and Scottish Enterprise. DGT
🎁 Edinburgh-based workplace gifting start-up Thankbox has just passed the 100,000 user mark and is aiming for £500,000 in turnover by 2024, with plans to double that by 2026. IN
👔 Glasgow-based Finnieston Clothing brand's founder explains the decision that some in the industry have called 'commercial suicide' of donating all their profits to charity. IN
💰 A new report is out from an investment panel commissioned by the Scottish Government on capital investment and net-zero. The recommendations include 3 main takeaways: 1) Gov should include investors in policy conversations, 2) Longterm infrastructure priorities should be clear, costed and shared, and 3) Public sector should invest in building relationships with investors. All in all, not rocket science... Read the full report here. SBN
📣 Asks & Offers
🤔 Know someone? Life sciences startup is looking for a Board Chair! Ideally, the right candidate would be: local to Scotland, confident, have startup & company growth experience, board experience (not necessarily chair), interested in life sciences (experience not required), keen to work for equity and cash blend, ready to start Dec/Jan if possible. Get in touch if that's you or you know someone.
🤝 Can you help? Eagle Labs is carrying out some research as they work on something to allow startups/scaleups to demo themselves to corporates who need their innovation, and is collecting some data to help them in their development. Any founder who has a spare 2 minutes to help fill out this survey would be really appreciated!
✍️ Want to sponsor Campfire? We're planning some new initiatives in 2024, so say hello and let's chat!
🤨 Campfire is looking into something: know any foreign founders based in Scotland who are or were on the UK Innovator visa and who used a for-profit organisation to help secure or sponsor it (e.g. not a University)? If so, we'd love to speak with them.
👭 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!
🦸 Absolute Superheroes
"John Morrison and Joe Fitzgibbon are absolute superheroes within the Scottish ecosystem. They're always there to help my company and other startups. From free mentoring in the early days, quality advice, even the occasional office space to use in Edinburgh and London, they are genuinely there to help out while still being cost-effective." - John Gordon, CEO & Co-founder, Incentive Games
Shepherd & Wedderburn's innovative and personable approach helps companies from first incorporation onwards (including through to an exit – if that’s the goal). Their global reach means they can scale and grow with you, like they have with clients like Epic Games, FanDuel, Parsleybox, and TVSquared.
👉 To learn more, send an email starttoscale@shepwedd.co.uk & set up a chat.
📅 Events
🤝 Series: Unplugged: Open to everyone, Unplugged is a networking event for professionals working in, or interested in, tech startups and tech innovation.
🔌 05/12, 16:00 🗺️ Banchory MORE INFO
🔌 07/12, 16:00 🗺️ Inverurie MORE INFO
🎫 05/12, 17:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Scottish Notion Meetup: A meetup to talk all things Notion. MORE INFO
🌍 07/12, 19:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Climate Techies Edinburgh Bi-Monthly Member Sustainability Drinks Meetup: Connect & network with fellow Edinburg Climate Techies founders, investors & corporates focused on sustainability and climate change. MORE INFO
☕ Series: Unfiltered: A series of informal catch-ups with the digital tech community in Aberdeen, Stirling, and Inverness. Come for a coffee and stay for the hotdesking!
📆 06/12, 08:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: MORE INFO
📆 06/12, 08:30 🗺️ Stirling: MORE INFO
📆 06/12, 08:30 🗺️ Inverness: MORE INFO
📆 06/12, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: MORE INFO
📆 06/12, 08:30 🗺️ Dundee: MORE INFO
📆 06/12, 08:30 🗺️ Glasgow: MORE INFO
💻 06/12, 09:30 🗺️ Dumfries: Coworking Day [South of Scotland]: We’re excited to invite our tech and business community, and anyone wishing to connect with our local community to our coworking days, taking place at Flourish in Dumfries. We're hosting these coworking days every Wednesday from 25th October - 13th December 2023, where you can join us for startup chat, networking, and to get to know you local tech-curious peers. MORE INFO
🧑💻 06/12, 10:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Getting Started with Data and AI: Scottish Enterprise, in collaboration with Effini, is hosting four workshops on the power of data and artificial intelligence (AI) for small businesses. Aimed at SME’s who want to learn, gain an understanding of, and overcome challenges associated with data. MORE INFO
⛓️ 06/12, 17:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Monthly Scottish Blockchain Meetup: Welcome to the Monthly Scottish Blockchain Meetup in CodeBase! MORE INFO
📶 07/12, 18:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: CMX Connect: Join your fellow community professionals to review how you performed against 2023 plans and lean into your ambitions for 2024. We will also run a recap of CMX Summit by those who attended in Redwood City in October. MORE INFO
🎄 Series: Tech the Halls: Join us for a festive social to celebrate everything the our community has achieved this year. Let your hair down, hang out with others in the community, and join in with the festivities: you deserve it. There will be food, drink, games and music available and we look forward to celebrating with you!
🥂 07/12, 18:00 🗺️ Stirling: Central Scotland Festive Social MORE INFO
🥂 12/12, 18:00 🗺️ Dundee: Dundee and Tayside Festive Social MORE INFO
🥂 13/12, 16:30 🗺️ Inverness: Highlands & Islands Festive Social MORE INFO
🥂 14/12, 17:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh & Lothians Festive Social MORE INFO
🥂 15/12, 17:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Glasgow & West Festive Social MORE INFO
🧑🎄 07/12, 20:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Glasgow Tech Christmas Night Out: All are welcome and there is no requirement to have any level of tech knowledge or experience to attend, just a desire to learn. Come along (bring your friends), network and learn something new with us. MORE INFO
💻 13/12, 09:30 🗺️ Dumfries: Coworking Day [South of Scotland]: We’re excited to invite our tech and business community, and anyone wishing to connect with our local community to our coworking days, taking place at Flourish in Dumfries. We're hosting these coworking days every Wednesday from 25th October - 13th December 2023, where you can join us for startup chat, networking, and to get to know you local tech-curious peers. MORE INFO
👸 19/12, 17:30 🗺️ Stirling: Digital Skills 4 Girls [Stirling]: From coding and gaming to digital design and video, DS4G is a friendly and supportive environment to learn new skills and meet new friends. MORE INFO
🤝 19/12, 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. We're dedicated to fostering an inclusive community where individuals from diverse backgrounds can come together to share knowledge, spark ideas, ignite curiosity, foster collaboration, and promote responsible data practices. Each month, we'll be featuring different themes, so check out our updates on our socials and Eventbrite page. MORE INFO
🎊 20/12, 18:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Holiday Meetup 2023 [Tech Meetup, ESC, Startup Founders Meetup]: Join the hosts of the Tech Meetup, Entrepreneur Social Club, The Startup Founders Meetup, and Startup Grind Scotland for the final final meetup of 2023! No speakers, just conversations! Dress Code: The theme is "holiday party", however you decide to interpret that :). MORE INFO
🎯 Deadlines
🇬🇧 Upcoming Innovate UK deadlines:
Launchpad: bio-based manufacturing in Scotland – R1 MFA and CR&D Applications close December 13
Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrators Applications close 8 January 2024
Smart Grants September 2023 Applications close 17 January
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