Welcome to the June edition of DIGIT Movers and Shakers, 2024!

Every month, our Movers and Shakers feature gives you the low-down on recent news in the Scottish tech ecosystem, from recruitment and partnerships to expansions and awards.

This month boasts a mix of cutting-edge organisations and key players doing exciting things — read on to find out what’s been happening!

Recruitment

NMIS Bolster Board With Two Industry Veterans

The National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) has strengthened its non-executive board with the appointment of Neil Logan and Allan Cook CBE.

The duo bring ‘extensive leadership in engineering, manufacturing and digital entrepreneurship to the board’. Their expertise will support the leadership team and help NMIS to deliver transformative impact across the manufacturing community in Scotland and beyond.

To read more, click here.

Scottish Financial Enterprise Chair Stepping Down

Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE) chair John McGuigan has announced his intention to stand down, with his successor to be confirmed at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) next month.

McGuigan took on the role in November 2022, having joined the board of SFE, which is the representative body for Scotland’s financial services industry, in 2016.

To read more, click here.

KPMG Appoints New Leader for Scotland Operations

KPMG UK has appointed Vishal Chopra to lead the professional services firm in Scotland.

Chopra will be responsible for a team of more than 900 people across KPMG’s offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

He has been based in Scotland throughout his professional career and takes on the prominent role having most recently led KPMG’s Scottish tax team, working closely with businesses across the region.

To read more, click here.

New Chair of DMA Scotland Appointed

The Data & Marketing Association (DMA UK) has announced it is ‘refocusing its presence in Scotland’ in support of the country’s AI strategy, underpinned by the appointment of a new chair of DMA Scotland.

Anneli Ritari-Stewart has set out her vision for championing the responsible and ethical use of AI to drive growth and innovation in Scottish marketing, in line with Scotland’s AI strategy.

To read more, click here.

Machines With Vision appoints Giulia Chironna as Business Development Manager

Machines With Vision are pleased to announce the appointment of Giulia Chironna in the newly created role of Business Development Manager, to enable the business to achieve its global growth plans.

Giulia’s role will enable the business to grow on a global scale, a key focus for 2024. Her role will also focus on building strong relationships with potential customers and understanding how Machines With Vision can tailor their products, from RailLoc to Fault Navigator, to solve customer challenges.

TechForce Cyber Appoints Liam Sanders as Chief Revenue Officer

TechForce Cyber has announced the appointment of Liam Sanders as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). This strategic move comes after a successful 12-month collaboration with the team led by founder and CEO, Jai Aenugu.

Liam Sanders brings over a decade of extensive experience in sales management, growth strategies, go-to-market execution, and overall business strategy. With a proven track record of driving revenue growth and scaling operations globally, Liam is well-equipped to steer TechForce Cyber toward achieving its ambitious growth objectives.

Partnerships

BR-DGE Partners with Global Open Banking Firm Trustly

Payment orchestration provider, BR-DGE, has announced its partnership with global open banking solutions firm, Trustly.

This partnership will allow BR-DGE’s merchants to tap into and offer Trustly as a payment option, which aims to provide the safe, seamless deposit and withdrawal of funds to consumer’s bank accounts, as well as other payments, financial and KYC data products that Trustly offers.

To read more, click here.

CGI Announces Heriot-Watt as Latest Academic Partner

CGI, one of the world’s largest business and IT consulting firms in the UK, is pleased to announce Heriot-Watt University as the latest organisation to join its SEEDS (Sustainability Exploration and Environmental Data Science) research programme, supported by the United Nations (UN).

The partnership will leverage the strengths and expertise of Heriot-Watt’s four global research institutes — iNetZ+, The Lyell Centre, The National Robotarium, and Health and Care Technologies — spread across five campuses in Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai, and Malaysia. Together, CGI and Heriot-Watt will collaborate to deliver solutions spanning the ‘depths of the ocean, to the frontiers of outer space.’

To read more, click here.

STAC and Volvo Cars Announce Strategic Partnership

The Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC) has announced a new strategic partnership with Volvo Cars.

With the partnership, the Glasgow-based technology accelerator is set to provide an innovation pipeline for the Swedish carmaker that’s a pioneer in the global electric vehicle (EV) market.

To read more, click here.

ICO Partners With Canada to Investigate 23andMe Data Breach

Following a major breach of 23andMe, the DNA testing and hereditary platform, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is partnering with its Canadian counterpart to investigate the company.

In October 2023, 23andMe, the genetic testing site which hosts deeply personal information such as ethnic backgrounds, medical information, and heraldry linkage, suffered a data breach that affected 6.9 million users.

To read more, click here.

Strathclyde Uni & CHSS Partner to Create Metaverse Charity Shop

Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland (CHSS) is believed to be among the first UK charities aiming to set up shop in the virtual world to raise vital funds.

Researchers from the University of Strathclyde’s Business School (SBS) are working with the organisation’s management, volunteers, and customers to understand their requirements, before building and launching a CHSS metaverse and digital assets.

To read more, click here.

Scottish Space Network Partners With Sustainable Alpha

The Scottish Space Network has announced a strategic partnership with New York-based Sustainable Alpha to open up investment opportunities for the Scottish, UK and international space sectors.

The collaboration will initially focus on identifying the funding needs of the fast-growing industry and developing an investment strategy.  The partnership will also look to secure opportunities for the global investment community to invest in leading early-stage and scaling space tech businesses.

To read more, click here.

Bridgeall: Scotland’s First OutSystems Partner

Bridgeall is excited to announce that they are the first registered OutSystems partner located in Scotland. With the growing success of Brideall’s existing low-code development practice, this strategic addition to existing service offerings on the Microsoft stack, will continue to help the company provide digital transformation and accelerate delivery.

Aveni partners with intelliflo as a strategic AI partner

AI fintech aveni.ai and financial advice techology platform intelliflo, a global leader in financial advice technology, have partnered to integrate generative AI, aiming to revolutionise the financial advice workflow and compliance with an end-to-end solution.

Aveni is working towards embedding its product suite into intelliflo office for all customers in the coming months, offering a tailored solution for financial advice.  With Aveni’s AI meeting assistant, advisers will soon be able to record 100% of customer meetings, conduct compliance and administrative checks significantly faster – Aveni.ai estimates saving up to three hours per case.

This single source of data automation promises a significant reduction in administrative burdens, fostering increased human-to-human interaction and allowing advisers to maximise their focus on clients.

University of Glasgow and NHS Golden Jubilee Strengthen Partnership

NHS Golden Jubilee and The University of Glasgow have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to further strengthen their relationship for the future of healthcare.

Building on the existing relationship between the 2 organisations, this MOU continues to build on the incredible track record of innovation, research and collaboration they have built over the last several years.

Originally signing an MOU with the University in 2018 to benefit medical science, this renewed commitment will continue to strengthen and build on this relationship, with the aim of continuing to support successful collaborative research, training and the advancement of knowledge and healthcare provision in Scotland and beyond.

Expansions

Brightsolid Expands to Manchester with New Office

Brightsolid, the Scottish cloud service provider, has expanded into England for the first time with new offices in Manchester.

With more than 25 years as part of DC Thomson, the Dundee media company, Brightsolid has grown to become one of Scotland’s largest providers of managed hybrid cloud and cybersecurity services for SMEs and public sector organisations..

To read more, click here.

GoFibre Hits Milestone With Network Covering 100K+ Rural Premises

Scottish independent broadband provider GoFibre has reached a new milestone, with over 100,000 homes and businesses now being able to connect to its ultra-fast broadband network.

Dedicated to closing the digital divide in Scotland, the provider delivers full-fibre to rural and harder-to-research locations.

The news follows what the firm called “significant growth” over the last 18 months, which has subsequently led to network expansion.

To read more, click here.

xDesign Rebrands as CreateFuture Amid UK Expansion

CreateFuture has today been unveiled as the new name of the digital consultancy and delivery partner formerly known as xDesign, following an extensive rebrand.

To coincide with its new look and name, CreateFuture has also announced the expansion of its UK presence by officially launching its new offices in Manchester and London.

To read more, click here.

Glasgow-based digital marketing agency GRA expands

A series of new business wins, both in Scotland and the USA, has led innovative Glasgow-based full service digital marketing agency GRA to quadruple the size of its offices.

Now with the keys to refurbished new premises at in the Park area of the city, GRA managing director, Jemma Robertson’s growing team has lots more room to breathe.

Awards

CCL wins Technology Company of the Year at Multimodal Awards

CCL Logistics & Technology (CCL) has won the Technology Company of the Year category at the Multimodal Awards at the NEC in Birmingham.  Multimodal is the UK’s leading supply chain conference and logistics expo, and the annual awards recognise outstanding industry-leading supply chain businesses in the Transport and Logistics sector.

Miconex is A Force for Good at the PayTech Awards 

A commitment to positively impacting people, places and businesses was the driver for Miconex being honoured at the recent PayTech Awards, in association with Fintech Futures.

The global fintech operates over 200 local Town & City Gift Card and Downtown Gift Card programs around the world, plus Scotland Loves Local Gift Card programs alongside Scotland’s Towns Partnership, and received the PayTech: A Force For Good award at the London awards ceremony in June.

Miconex works alongside business improvement districts/areas, local authorities, chambers of commerce and organisations to help places to convert shop local sentiment into increased local spend. The physical or digital cards can be spent with a mix of national brands with independent businesses across a range of sectors, a USP within the industry.