🐠 Moblyze & CSignum raise, New Chief Entrepreneur, AI Accelerator applications open, Global Airlines is taking off
Here's your Campfire for the 28th of April, 2025.
💼 This issue of Campfire is sponsored by Shepherd and Wedderburn. Next month, they’re hosting Building a winning team: How can your tech company recruit and retain the right people? Find more info below 👇
🌊 Updates
🎯 The new Mark: Ana Stewart, founder of i-design, and co-author of the "Pathways" report, has been appointed Scotland’s new Chief Entrepreneur as the £700,000 Ecosystem Fund reopens to support start-ups. FS DGT
📢 Applications are now open for the University of Edinburgh’s 2025 AI Accelerator, a 6-month programme helping AI-focused ‘scaleups’ (Note: This is a misnomer. They are looking for companies with revenue of at least £50k OR other funding over £250k in the past two years. Potential to reach £1m revenue in next 3 years) “grow through workshops, mentorship, investment support, and two trips to London,” with pre-qualifications closing 14 May and full applications due 19 May. Application form above and enquiries can be emailed directly here. DGT
💰 The AI energy recruitment app Moblyze, developed by Dundee-founded JAB Recruitment, has secured £1.5M to drive its global expansion, aiming to modernise how skilled workers connect with opportunities across oil, gas, and renewables through its AI-powered platform. The funding was led by former chief financial officer of Skyscanner, Shane Corstorphine, and Garreth Wood, son of Sir Ian Wood and newly-installed chairman of the Wood Foundation, and follows a £100,000 commitment from Scottish Enterprise. SS SBN DGT
🐠 Bathgate-based firm CSignum (wireless technology for underwater IoT communications) raised £6 million in a Series A funding round. The investment, led by Archangels, Par Equity, and Scottish Enterprise, with additional backing from British Business Investment (BBI), Raptor Group, Deep Future, and SeaAhead’s Blue Angel Network, and individual US investors. The investment will support the growth of the firm’s EM-2 family of products, which transmit wireless sensor data from submerged environments to networks above. ACS DGT
🚀 According to KPMG, Scottish start-ups raised £100.5 million across 27 deals in the first quarter of 2025, up 8% from the previous quarter. Major deals included £50 million for Glasgow-based Blk Global (online commodity and industrial supplies marketplace), £13.4 million for energy tech firm IONATE (grid-scale power tech), and £8.8 million for seaweed innovator OCEANIUM (innovative seaweed-based ingredients). Edinburgh and Glasgow accounted for most investments, but firms in Falkirk, Oban, and Stonehaven also attracted funding (£19.7 million). Nationally, the UK remained Europe’s top VC destination, raising £4.1 billion despite a slight dip in deals and investment amid cautious market conditions. TS SBN DGT
✈️ Fancy a quick jaunt to NYC? UK startup Global Airlines has opened ticket sales for its first passenger flight from Scotland. The airline plans to operate a special A380 flight from Glasgow Airport to New York’s JFK on Thursday, May 15, with the return flight landing in Glasgow on Monday, May 19. It will follow with a Manchester to JFK service on May 21, returning May 25. Return tickets are priced at £778 for economy, £3,700 for business, and £7,127 for first class. TH
📣 Asks & Offers
🚨Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.
💼 Work with TopHatch: Senior Frontend Engineer (Remote, UK/Finland) Looking for a place where you can bring your whole self to work and make a real impact? TopHatch, a remote-first company behind the award-winning app Concepts, is hiring a Senior Frontend Engineer (Contract, £60–£70/hr) based in the UK or Finland to work with modern web technologies in a supportive, people-first environment. Apply here.
☕ 100 Coffees: Barry McDonald is looking to have “100 coffees with 100 different people across the Scottish ecosystem. The reason? To hear from a wide and diverse group about the challenges, opportunities and lived experiences across the ecosystem to develop a deeper understanding from a different POV. I’m blogging as I go.” Email Barry directly here, or book one of these coffees on his calendar here.
💻 Looking for an early-stage fractional CTO? Carlos Fontana is an Edinburgh-based experienced tech leader with over a decade of success guiding teams and defining architecture. He is the kind of technical leader who thrives where vision meets execution. He specialises in defining architecture from the ground up, building systems that are both scalable and secure, and organising technical priorities that set teams up for long-term success. If you’re looking for technical leadership support, connect and reach out to Carlos—let’s build something that matters.
👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.
👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!
✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!
Building a winning team: How can your tech company recruit and retain the right people?
Breakfast seminar
Wednesday 28 May, 8.30AM until 10.30AM
Location: Shepherd and Wedderburn’s Glasgow office, 1 W Regent St, Glasgow G2 1RW
Finding (and, more importantly, keeping) the right talent for your company can go a long way towards unlocking your company’s potential. So, what steps can your company take to get the best people on board and build a positive workplace culture to incentivise those people to stay?
Join Shepherd and Wedderburn’s legal experts as they answer that question and more, before considering industry success stories with guest panellist, Anne-Sofie Lagander. Anne-Sofie is a board-level, commercially savvy Talent and HR professional with extensive experience of recruiting and building effective boards and management teams.
This session will cover:
Key employment law considerations for founders and first recruits
Visa sponsorship for international workers.
How tax efficient share incentives can form a key part of your recruitment and retention strategy
Anne-Sofie’s industry-informed tips and success stories
Please join us from 8:30am onwards for some breakfast and networking, with the panel discussion starting at 9:00am and finishing at 10:00am. There will then be further networking opportunities after the panel discussion chat has concluded.
📅 Events
🔎 29/04, 10:00 🗺️ Glasgow: From Risk to Resilience: The Critical Role of Testing & QA in Startups: Join us for a hands-on session showing how smart testing can reduce risk, protect reputation, and boost quality — without slowing you down. MORE INFO
🌐 29/04, 10:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Co-Work Club Edinburgh: Tired of the home office grind but not ready for the daily commute? Say goodbye to crowded coffee shops and the endless search for a quiet Zoom spot. MORE INFO
🩺 29/04, 10:00 🗺️ Aberdeen: Barclays Eagle Labs at One Tech Hub Drop in Clinic Apr 2025: Drop in and let’s have a chat about your business goals and ambitions here at One Tech Hub. MORE INFO
🚀 30/04, 12:00 🗺️ Online: Boost Sales & Streamline Operations Webinar: AI can enhance your Shopify store by automating tasks, personalising customer experiences, and optimizing sales strategies. MORE INFO
🥂 30/04, 18:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Entrepreneurs Social Club (ESC) - April 2025: Skip the talks, presentations and lectures - in favour of going straight to the bar, where real connections are made! MORE INFO
🎯 30/04, 18:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: MLOps Meetup Apr 2025: 🍺 Beer and 🍕 Pizzas this evening come from our Sponsor, Skyscanner. MORE INFO
💡 01/05, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Financial Services Technology Summit 2025 – Edinburgh: The conference will host 300+ attendees, 20+ speakers and 15+ exhibitors. The Summit will explore the transformative impact of technology on the modern FS enterprise and examine advancements in Cloud, AI, Blockchain and Payments, to the regulatory impact of Customer Duty, SDR, DORA & NIS2. MORE INFO
🤝 01/05, 11:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Tech Meetup Glasgow - May 2025: Learn how to manage your telemetry data from source to destination using the pipeline phases covering collection, parsing, aggregation, transformation, and forwarding from any source to any destination. MORE INFO
💼 01/05, 12:00 🗺️ Online: Online Office Hours with Lawrie: Managing and Protecting Your IP: Meet with a Director and Patent Attorney from Lawrie for direct, personalised advice on IP! MORE INFO
👨🏻💻 01/05, 12:00 🗺️ Galashiels: Borders Tech Connect Launch MeetUp: A new community of students, businesses, and technologists working together to build digital skills and tools for the Scottish Borders. MORE INFO
💻 06/05, 17:30 🗺️ Galashiels: South of Scotland Low Carbon Workforce Event: Join South of Scotland Enterprise, Borders College and HeatSource for this low carbon workforce networking event. MORE INFO
🗽 06/05, 12:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: US Expansion Lunch feat. Wilson Sonsini - Approval Only: The topic of discussion? US Expansion hosted by Daniel Glazer, who leads the US Expansion group and London office at Silicon Valley-headquartered Wilson Sonsini. MORE INFO
🌟 06/05, 13:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Unlocking Success: Women, Tech & Investment: This exclusive event brings together female founders, investors, and tech leaders to tackle the challenges and opportunities women face in the industry. With interviews, panels, and roundtables, we’ll dive into everything from resilience in entrepreneurship to cracking the investor code, building power networks, and securing funding beyond the usual channels. MORE INFO
🤝 06/05, 17:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup Edinburgh - May 2025: The Tech Meetup is a monthly excuse for the tech community around Scotland to network, learn and share new ideas! Enjoy informative tech presentations from your peers, hear about exciting community projects and create new connections. MORE INFO
🩷 6-8/05, 19:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Turing Fest: Get ready to learn from top tech minds across FOUR tracks, at 2 full days of talks, power network with the best, deep dive at the peer sessions, have in-depth conversations at the speaker roundtables, unwind and network at fringe events, parties, and more! SAVE £200 with code CAMP200! MORE INFO
☕ Series: Unfiltered: An in-person, informal catch-up with the Scottish tech community! Come join us for a coffee!
⛾ 07/05, 08:30 🗺️ Inverness, MORE INFO
⛾ 07/05, 08:30 🗺️ Stirling, MORE INFO
⛾ 07/05, 08:30 🗺️ Glasgow, MORE INFO
⛾ 07/05, 08:30 🗺️ Aberdeen, MORE INFO
⛾ 07/05, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh, MORE INFO
🤝 07/05, 10:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Cowork with Antler—For Founders, Operators and Investors: Join us for a focused day of coworking with early-stage founders, operators, and builders on the fringes of Turing Fest. Whether you’re already building, just getting started, or seriously thinking about taking the leap—this is a space for the serious. MORE INFO
🚀 08/05, 11:25 🗺️ Edinburgh: Women of SaaS Pop-Up — Turing Fest Edinburgh: A power-packed conversation you don’t want to miss popping up at Turing Fest in Edinburgh! Join us for a 30-minute roundtable that’s all about real talk on advancing women in SaaS and tech leadership. MORE INFO
🛠️ 08/05, 12:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Robotics Readiness Workshop - May 2025: Join our Robotic Readiness Workshop to assess your robotics adoption and gain tailored tools for seamless integration across your business. MORE INFO
🧗♀️ 09/05, 09:45 🗺️ Edinburgh: Scottish EDGE Round 25 Live Final: Round 25 of the UK's BIGGEST small business funding competition will take place on 9th May at RBS Conference Centre with the latest batch of finalists pitching for up to £100,000 in funding. The event will feature two simultaneous pitching sessions, an exhibitor and networking atrium, sector-specific workshops, and keynote talks. MORE INFO
📌 12/05, 10:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Innovate UK BridgeAI Regional Roadshow: Edinburgh: This dynamic, in-person is designed to be accessible and locally relevant, these events will help individuals and organisations explore how AI can drive innovation and tackle regional challenges. MORE INFO
💼 14/05, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Talent Acquisition and Retention - How to hire and keep the best work force: Join us, as we discuss how Founders can make sure they attract and keep the right talent for their business. MORE INFO
💬 15/05, 12:00 🗺️ Online: Key Worker Homes in the South of Scotland – Findings and Recommendations: Learn about the barriers to key worker homes, potential solutions, who is considered a key worker, what employers have said and Q&A. MORE INFO
🍺 15/05, 18:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Glasgow - Small99's People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup: Pop down to your local People Planet Pint meetup to find more about what's going on locally with sustainability and how you can get involved. MORE INFO
🚀 20/05, 10:00 🗺️ Dumfries: SOSE AcceleratE Programme - Dumfries: Scale your business with expert-led strategy, branding, sales, and leadership training in our 6-day accelerator programme. MORE INFO
📌 20/05, 17:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup: Welcome to the Monthly Blockchain Scotland Meetup at the Bayes Centre in Edinburgh. The event takes place at the ground floor in G.03. MORE INFO
📍 20/05, 18:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: May Meetup - State machines with XState: Our talks aim to introduce members of the community, fostering networking, mentorship, learning, and collaboration. Everyone is welcome—whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned engineer. MORE INFO
🎯 21/05, 09:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Professionals Quarterly Networking - Let's talk about AI.: We wanted to bring together our local network or professionals and Founders here in Edinburgh as a way of introducing them to each other. MORE INFO
🌐 21/05, 10:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Pitching Workshop: Understanding Investors: Join us for this in-person workshop to understand investor psychology and criteria! MORE INFO
💻 22/05, 08:30 🗺️ Perth: Perth Tech Mornings: An in-person and informal catch-up with the Perth tech community! MORE INFO
🚀 22/05, 09:00 🗺️ Online: Scale Your Service Business With Tech- Hybrid Event - Dumfries and Online: Do you run a service-based business, and are looking for inspiration on how you can grow and scale efficiently through technology? MORE INFO
💻 22/05, 10:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Co-Work Club Glasgow: Tired of the home office grind but not ready for the daily commute? Say goodbye to crowded coffee shops and the endless search for a quiet Zoom spot. We've got the solution: Welcome to Coworking Club at Yotel, Glasgow. Last Tuesday of the month.. MORE INFO
🤝 22/05, 10:30 🗺️ Perth: Perth Coworking Day: A free coworking day in the Famous Grouse Idea Centre for the tech and business community. MORE INFO
📝 22/05, 05:15 🗺️ Edinburgh: Barclays Eagle Labs and CodeBase Quarterly Pub Quiz (May 2025): Join us for this month's pub quiz - bringing together the CodeBase and Edinburgh community for a bit of fun! MORE INFO
📍 23/05, 10:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Good Ideas: Catalyst: Our Good Ideas: Catalyst is the perfect way to explore the potential of a new idea for social or environmental change. If you’re an early-stage innovator, in need of a change of direction or just passionate about finding a way to address a cause, Good Ideas: Catalyst is an entry point for you to explore the feasibility of a new idea. MORE INFO
🚀 26/05, 18:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Kicking off Glasgow Tech Week: From Scotland to the World. Scotland’s tech ecosystem is thriving, and the world is watching. Join us for a fun summer evening with Startup Grind Glasgow full of inspiring conversations, valuable connections, and insights on taking your startup from Scotland to the world. RSVP here
💻 27/05, 10:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Co-Work Club Edinburgh: Tired of the home office grind but not ready for the daily commute? Say goodbye to crowded coffee shops and the endless search for a quiet Zoom spot. We've got the solution: Welcome to Co-Work Club @ Kimpton Hotel, Edinburgh. MORE INFO
📌 28/05, 08:30 🗺️ Glasgow: Building a winning team: How can your tech company recruit and retain the right people?: Join Shepherd and Wedderburn’s legal experts as they answer that question and more, before considering industry success stories with guest panellist, Anne-Sofie Lagander. MORE INFO
💸 28/05, 12:00 🗺️ Online: Pre-seed Funding Masterclass: Raising from Angels: Join us for a practical, founder-focused Pre-Seed Funding Masterclass, where we’ll demystify the early-stage investment process. MORE INFO
🎪 29/05, 09:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Fusion Fest: Attendees of Fusion Fest will have the opportunity to network with colleagues and peers in a conference designed for actionable learnings at the same time showcasing talent and expertise in Glasgow. MORE INFO
📍 29/05, 17:00–22:30 🗺️ Glasgow: TecTonic Night Summit at Barras Art & Design: An immersive evening of curiosity, connectivity, and community. Join 400+ founders, creatives, tech professionals, and ecosystem builders for exhibitions, innovation showcases, mentorship sessions, and more as part of Glasgow Tech Week. MORE INFO
🤝 30/05, 09:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founder Friday Coworking: Join us for a day of networking and inspiration! this is your chance to connect with fellow founders, share ideas, and maybe even spark your next big project. MORE INFO
🎯 Deadlines
Royal Academy of Engineering – Shott ScaleUp Accelerator Now Open
Are you looking to take your DeepTech business to the next level? Apply now to join the Shott Scale Up Accelerator, a programme empowering senior leaders with the insights and leadership skills needed to scale successfully. Apply by 20th May.
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That’s all for this week - have a great one!
Team 🔥 Campfire