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18 Glasgow Tech Startups You Need To Know About
Once defined by shipbuilding and heavy industry, Glasgow has reinvented itself as a modern European tech success story — an ecosystem driving bold innovation and delivering tangible, exciting solutions to some of the world’s most urgent challenges.
It’s been a visceral transformation. Pulling into Central Station now offers a strikingly different cityscape than it did just ten years ago.
Years of truncated transition and an identity problem as the city struggled to move on from its industrial DNA have been firmly addressed – while these roots are rightly still vaunted and iterated on (as you’ll see in the next paragraph), there’s no question as to what Glasgow is now.
Today, it’s a city where innovation is embedded across sectors, from advanced manufacturing and retail to FinTech and MedTech. This cross-sector approach has helped fuel a £3.8 billion GVA advanced manufacturing sector employing 55,000 people, while university spin-outs and scale-ups are driving transformation in areas like healthtech, AI, and sustainability.
Backed by world-class research institutions like the University of Glasgow and the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow’s tech ecosystem appears to be in decent shape.
It attracted over £191 million in venture capital in 2023, with continued strong investment into 2024 contributing to a combined £267 million in venture capital for 2023-2024, according to the 2023 Glasgow Startup Ecosystem report by Dealroom – the same report found Glasgow to be one of the fastest-growing ecosystems in the UK, propagating at a quicker rate than many mature European ecosystems, not least cities such as Berlin, Tallinn, Brussels, London, and Amsterdam.
This momentum has carried into the current year and throughout the country, with Scottish startups seeing £91.7 million in VC investment in Q1 2025 – £50 million of that going to Glasgow’s very own Blk Global.
Yet beyond the figures that look tasty in a headline, it’s arguably the strength of Glasgow’s infrastructure that’s enabling this kind of breakout success to happen more often – and at scale.
At the heart of the city’s startup ecosystem is a layered support network – accelerators, incubators, funding schemes, and data platforms – all built to help ventures not just launch, but scale and commercialise.
Innovation Districts like GCID and AMIDS, alongside powerhouse accelerators like STAC and government-backed programmes, create a strong pipeline from idea to impact. For example, the Venture Studio, led by Glasgow City Innovation District, links academic research with commercial expertise to back high-growth ventures.
Meanwhile, the University of Glasgow’s Infinity G programme helps students, alumni, and researchers turn cutting-edge ideas into viable businesses.
Sector-specific initiatives also play a crucial role in the city’s startup success. The Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC) is undoubtedly a standout example. Backed by £2.5 million in public-private investment, it provides co-working and lab space to up to 100 companies focused on industrial, health, lifestyle, and sustainability technologies.
Other notable accelerators include CivTech Scotland, Techscaler, and Strathclyde Inspire.
Techscaler, funded by £42 million from the Scottish Government, claimed in its two-year anniversary report card that came out in March, that participating startups have raised over £118 million in investment thus far.
Specialised programs like Powering the Future, developed with Sustainable Ventures and Barclays Eagle Labs, are further enriching the ecosystem. This initiative supports climate tech founders through access to venture development tools, mentorship, and direct exposure to investors.
Access to cash and funding also appears to be in a solid place. Startups can access public grants from Scottish Enterprise, micro-grants from Glasgow City Council, and early-stage capital from angel groups such as Archangels and Equity Gap. Additionally, Scottish EDGE offers loans of up to £100,000 for high-potential businesses.
More important than any of this though – in Glasgow, you can still get a large donner kebab and a tin of juice for a fiver if you know where to look.
So, that’s the canvass we’re working with here – and we’ve certainly not covered it all. With that in mind and without further ado, here’s some Glasgow tech startups you should know about.
Glasgow Tech Startups You Need to Know About in 2025
EOLAS Insight
A geospatial intelligence company using AI and satellite/drone imagery for environmental mapping and monitoring. Eolas Insight’s THEIA platform automates complex geospatial workflows (combining AI and Earth Observation data) to produce configurable outputs such as maps and reports, without requiring users to master GIS software.
In 2024/25, EOLAS led the Innovate UK-funded Trustable AI in Mapping (TAiM) consortium, which developed standards and tools to validate AI/ML models for land-cover mapping.
Now wrapped up, the TAiM project produced an open-access data portal and knowledge base to improve transparency and confidence in AI-driven maps. As part of the same project, the consortium also released QuickBeam, a smartphone app for easy ground-truth data collection to validate AI-generated maps.
Accurate and trustworthy environmental data has never been more important. Whether it’s for tackling climate change or managing land use – the best information possible can only be a good thing when forming policy and informing public opinion with accurate and transparent data.
GeneralPractice.AI
GeneralPractice.AI (founded in 2023 by GP Dr. Angus Perry) builds AI-powered software for primary care. Its platform includes over 50 clinical and practice-management apps designed to streamline GP workflows, reduce administrative burden, and support preventive care.
The platform holds significant potential for the Scottish NHS by addressing critical challenges in primary care. Scottish general practices face mounting pressures from GP shortages, escalating administrative tasks, and increasing patient demand. A report by the GP Retention Working Group highlights the need to reduce administrative burdens on GPs, suggesting that IT and AI solutions could play a pivotal role in alleviating these pressures .
By automating routine tasks and streamlining workflows, GeneralPractice.AI could free up valuable time for GPs, allowing them to focus more on patient care and potentially improving job satisfaction and retention.
A key feature of GeneralPractice is Ask Ernie, an AI assistant that can simulate consultations by tapping into 25+ virtual “specialist” models, perform intelligent symptom checking, draft letters, and suggest patient resources.
The company has had a strong 2025 thus far, raising £250K in May 2025 to scale operations.
Konversable
Established back in 2017, Konversable provides AI-driven chatbot and messaging solutions in a bid to improve customer engagement and lead generation for businesses.
The firm’s AI chatbot and messaging technology allows businesses and organisations to have ‘smarter conversations’ with their customers online using its trademarked MediaFlo system, which allows operators and customers to embed custom media, including video, audio or images, into the chat flow.
As well as working to integrate its AI chat products with Facebook, the firm’s mission is to become the “go-to” WhatsApp API provider of choice for UK businesses.
Back in 2023, the firm was part of the Scottish Government-funded entrepreneurship delegation to Lisbon.
In November 2024, the firm closed an angel funding round with £300K, with co-founder and director Stephen Upton saying that “the support of our investors will play a key role in helping us scale our business on a global level.”
Clyde Hydrogen Systems
Clyde Hydrogen Systems is developing a new way to produce green hydrogen more efficiently and at high pressure, which is important for making clean energy more practical and scalable.
Unlike traditional methods, their two-step process can handle variable renewable power (like wind or solar) and still produce hydrogen at pressures above 100 bar – making it cheaper to store and transport. This could help accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels, especially in off-grid or remote energy systems.
A full 10 kW prototype pilot system is planned for late 2025, with a commercial demonstrator in 2027.
Earlier this year, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Hebrides-based green hydrogen producer and distributor, PlusZero, to demonstrate its decoupled electrolyser technology for the first time outside of the laboratory.
To date the company has raised a total of about $7.6M: a £1 million pre-seed round (Apr 2024) and a £5 million seed round (Dec 2024).
FD Intelligence
FD Intelligence is an emerging disrupter within the accountancy sector, using AI to automate repetitive, time-consuming tasks like data entry and tax form preparation, seeking to not only save time, but boost accuracy, letting firms focus more on high-value financial advice.
It’s a key step in modernising the sector and making expert services more efficient and scalable.
The company’s flagship product, the charmingly named PeTAR (Personal Tax Automation Robot), automates personal tax return preparation. PeTAR has dramatically cut the time accountancy firms spend on tax forms – from hours to minutes, according to FDI – while increasing accuracy.
In early 2025, the company raised £200K to fuel expansion into the financial services sector. At the time, FDI employed ~30 people and planned to add 16 more over two years.
Gigged.AI
Gigged.AI helps companies unlock and make better use of the talent they already have. By using AI to match employees to internal projects and identify skill gaps, it reduces reliance on costly external hires and helps tackle tech talent shortages from within.
CEO and Founder Rich Wilson, writing in an opinion piece for DIGIT, encouraged companies to take advantage of what he called “quiet hiring” to deal with the current skills shortage, explaining: “By combining internal mobility, upskilling, and reskilling initiatives with strategic engagement of contingent workers, we can solve the skill shortage in the short and long term.”
Founded in 2021, Gigged AI’s “talent marketplace” platform helps organisations optimise their workforce. Its white-label SaaS solution includes both an Internal Talent Marketplace (ITM) – matching employees’ skills to in-house project needs – and an Open Talent Marketplace (OTM) – sourcing freelance tech talent externally when needed.
In 2021, it was named by Tech Nation as a Rising Star 4.0 Scottish regional winner.
In January 2023 Gigged.AI raised a £1.6M seed round, which followed a £100,000 Scottish Enterprise grant in 2022.
Novosound
Novosound is making ultrasound smarter, smaller, and more accessible.
By developing flexible, wearable, and gel-free ultrasound sensors, it’s opening up new possibilities for continuous health monitoring and non-invasive diagnostics – while also modernising industrial testing with more adaptable, high-performance tools.
The spin-out – from University of the West of Scotland – patented manufacturing process allows mass production of ultrasound-on-chip devices that can be conformally applied to skin or embedded in equipment.
Completing the hardware is the company’s Slanj platform – a wireless, wearable ultrasound system (32-channel, Wi-Fi/5G connected) for continuous monitoring of vital signs (e.g. blood pressure, heart rate), creating what calls the “world’s first ultrasonic blood pressure monitor” using Slanj, miniaturising continuous BP measurement in a wearable form.
Beyond healthcare, Novosound’s tech applies to industrial non-destructive testing (NDT): it offers high-temp and high-frequency ultrasound products for fault detection in oil & gas, aerospace and semiconductor equipment.
In late 2024 Novosound closed a £2.0M investment round and moved into a new Glasgow HQ at BioCity to accelerate product development and commercialisation, building on an earlier £3.3M round in 2019.
The company has also announced a seven-figure R&D partnership with Israel’s dSound to develop 3D dental ultrasound, indicating early traction for its sensors in new markets.
Microplate Dx
Microplate Dx tackles one of healthcare’s biggest challenges: antibiotic resistance. By enabling doctors to identify the right antibiotic within minutes – not days – it helps ensure patients get effective treatment faster, while reducing unnecessary or incorrect antibiotic use that drives resistance.
A University of Strathclyde spin-out founded in 2022, the company’s diagnostic platform RPlate™ combines microfluidic hardware and AI to analyse samples (like urine for UTIs) quickly and accurately. This allows doctors to prescribe the most effective treatment immediately, improving outcomes and reducing the misuse of antibiotics.
Backed by £5–6M in funding and several clinical studies, the company is now working with the NHS to bring its technology to point-of-care settings.
Beyond this, the company has conducted multiple clinical studies and won industry awards (including two OBN Awards and the 2023 Barclays UK Startup Award).
Dxcover
Seeking to dramatically improve early cancer detection using a simple blood test, Dxcover’s work is arguably among the most important on this list.
By identifying solid tumors quickly and non-invasively, their technology has the potential to boost survival rates and reduce the need for more costly or invasive diagnostic procedures.
A 2016 spin-out from the University of Strathclyde, Dxcover’s platform dries a tiny blood sample on a cassette, scans it using infrared light, and uses AI to spot signs of cancer – often faster than traditional methods.
The technology has shown promise in identifying multiple cancers, including brain and bowel.
Its promise has been enough to turn the heads of investors, with the company raising $11.9m (£9.7m) back in early 2023.
More recently (February, 2025), the company raised $6.2M to expand clinical trials and move toward regulatory approval, and it has also begun growing its presence in the US.
Blazing Griffin
One of the older companies on the list, Blazing Griffin, established in 2011, is a digital entertainment studio that produces narrative-driven games and provides film/post-production services.
The BAFTA-award-winning studio known for adapting literary and original IP into cross-media projects.
In gaming, Blazing Griffin’s titles include Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot – The First Cases, Murderous Pursuits, and The Ship: Remasted.
Their most recent release, 2024’s Arsène Lupin – Once a Thief was well reviewed, with Adventure Gamers calling it “a well-constructed story with charming characters, providing a wonderful experience throughout this enchanting journey.”
Earlier this year, the studio participated in a government-backed programme to help Scottish games companies access Asian markets, attending events like Expo 2025 Osaka to build relationships in Japan’s large gaming industry.
Neuranics
Founded in 2021 as a joint spin-out from University of Glasgow and University of Edinburgh, Neuranics is developing ultra-sensitive magnetic sensors for human-machine interfaces.
What’s special about the tech is that it can read tiny muscle and heart signals without touching the skin. This means wearables like AR/VR headsets or health monitors can track gestures or vital signs more accurately and comfortably – without relying on cameras or electrodes.
Neuranics’ technology opens the door to more natural, hands-free interaction in extended reality (XR) and offers a better way to monitor health continuously.
Compared to traditional EMG sensors, Neuranics’ MMG devices offer higher accuracy, lower power consumption and true continuous monitoring.
In April 2025, Neuranics raised $8M in seed funding with an eye to help scale the team and accelerate commercial development.
This followed an £800K Scottish Enterprise grant in October 2024 for a £2.4M project to develop gesture-recognition wristbands.
Neuranics’ breakthrough has also earned industry recognition, with its magnetomyography sensor named a CES 2025 Innovation Awards honoree in the XR category.
Seluna
Established in 2022, Seluna uses AI to improve how children are diagnosed with sleep disorders – specifically Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), a common but often overlooked condition.
By automating the analysis of complex sleep-study data, Seluna’s software helps clinicians quickly identify severe cases, improving triage and potentially reducing hospital admissions through faster, more accurate diagnoses.
The company’s software-as-a-medical-device analyses hospital sleep-study data using machine learning to provide fast, objective diagnoses and risk stratification. Its algorithms automate analysis of multiple biosignals from polysomnography, producing clinicians’ decision-support output that helps identify severe cases needing urgent treatment.
Seluna has partnered with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde to ensure its AI sleep diagnostics align with clinical needs.
Named Scottish Graduate Startup of the Year 2024 and selected for the Innovate UK Global Incubator AI programme, the company is recognised for its potential to reduce paediatric hospital admissions through fast, remote diagnosis of sleep disorders
Nami Surgical
Nami Surgical – spin-out, formed in December 2021 from the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Medical and Industrial Ultrasonics – is developing ultra-compact ultrasonic scalpels for robot-assisted surgery, enabling faster, safer cutting and coagulation in minimally invasive procedures.
By miniaturising traditional tools to fit surgical robots, Nami’s technology could expand the capabilities of robotic surgery and improve patient outcomes.
Traditional ultrasonic surgical tools are bulky and designed for handheld laparoscopic use, limiting their use in robotic systems. Nami’s patented devices reduce the size of ultrasonic scalpels so they can be mounted on surgical robots, enabling faster and safer cutting and coagulation.
Back in May, 2024, the startup announced £3.2M in combined funding: a £2.5M seed round led by Eos Advisory (with Maven Capital, Scottish Enterprise and SIS Ventures) plus a £700K Innovate UK grant.
They subsequently won an additional £120K Innovate UK CR&D grant for project “AMNIUS” (advanced nitinol ultrasonic transducers for RAS).
By late 2024 Nami expanded to a new headquarters in Hillington, Glasgow, complete with an R&D prototyping lab to accelerate development.
Utopi
Founded in 2019, Utopi provides a hardware-and-software platform that helps operators of large multi-tenant buildings monitor and manage ESG performance in real time. By linking sustainability improvements to measurable energy savings and increased asset value.
Utopi’s platform collects live data through its proprietary multisensor/meters hardware and cloud software, combining analytics, energy control tools, and a resident app to reduce consumption and improve comfort.
Customers can deploy Utopi to achieve sustainability certifications (such as GRESB, BREEAM) and to satisfy ESG criteria (CQC ratings, etc.).
Back in 2023, the Scottish National Investment Bank invested £5 million into the platform.
In 2024, the company secured a spot in Deloitte’s 2024 UK Technology Fast 50, with Utopi ranking in CleanTech. Back in January, the startup was shortlisted in the ScotlandIS Digital Technology Awards in the Data Trailblazer category.
Talking Medicines
Talking Medicines, founded in 2013, applies AI to healthcare market research.
Its flagship platform, Drug-GPT™ is an AI model trained on millions of healthcare conversations and online content about medicines. By analysing patient and healthcare-professional data from social media and forums, Drug-GPT provides structured insights (sentiment, topics, concerns) about specific patient subpopulations and treatments.
For example, it can summarise how different patient groups feel about a drug in minutes rather than weeks.
In industry tests, Talking Medicines’ Drug-GPT achieved ~95% accuracy in classifying patient concerns (according to the company) earning them a PM360 Trailblazer Award in AI/Data Analytics in 2023.
Beyond awards, the company has received fiscal backing, with £1.1M investment in 2021 and £1.5M in venture funding in 2022.
More recently, the company was selected for the 2025 US MarketBooster programme.
Back in June of last year, we interviewed Talking Medicines’ chief operations officer and chief data officer, Elizabeth Fairley, to discuss the company’s growth journey from a Scottish startup to an award-winning AI company making waves in the US market.
Krucial
Krucial (formerly R3-IoT) is a Glasgow-based startup providing reliable connectivity and data services for remote and off-grid industrial operations.
Its Krucial CONNECT platform blends satellite, cellular, and LoRaWAN networks into a system that ensures real-time IoT data transmission from locations like offshore rigs, rural farms, or disaster zones.
This capability is crucial because many critical sectors – energy, agriculture, aquaculture, and emergency response – depend on data to operate safely and efficiently, yet often struggle with connectivity in harsh or isolated environments.
The company has gained significant traction since we interviewed its founders back in 2021.
The company scored $3.7 million in a seed funding round in September 2023, quickly followed by a European Space Agency contract in March 2024 to develop water monitoring solutions for global climate resilience. Partnerships with firms like Connected Farms and Bentley Systems, as well as new senior hires in early 2025 show that the firm is keeping its momentum rolling.
Chemify
Chemify is a University of Glasgow spin-out seeking to “digitise chemistry”.
Its proprietary “chemputation” platform uses AI, robotics, and digital reaction libraries to design and synthesize molecules on demand. By digitizing chemistry, Chemify aims to make molecular discovery faster, more precise, and more scalable—offering major benefits in fields like drug development, clean energy, agriculture, and materials science. This matters because traditional chemical synthesis is often slow, error-prone, and reliant on trial and error; Chemify brings a level of reproducibility and efficiency that could transform entire industries.
Since spinning out formally in 2022, Chemify has secured a £36 million ($43 million) Series A round led by Triatomic Capital, and a £7.5 million UK Innovation Accelerator grant to build a pilot “chemical giga-factory” in Glasgow, creating around 60 jobs.
To top it off, the company was awarded Spin-Out of the Year 2024 by the University of Glasgow.
SOLASTA Bio
Agri-biotech company SOLASTA Bio is seeking to pioneer a new generation of environmentally friendly crop protection. Its peptide-based bioinsecticides target harmful pests by disrupting their biology, while sparing pollinators and other beneficial species.
This is important because conventional insecticides often harm ecosystems, contribute to biodiversity loss, and face growing regulatory pressure. SOLASTA’s approach offers a sustainable alternative that can help secure global food supplies without compromising environmental health.
In 2023, it completed over 20 trials across Europe, the UK, and the U.S., showing its bioinsecticides match or outperform commercial chemical standards. Following this success, SOLASTA raised over £10 million in Series A funding in September 2024 and was granted its first patent and a favorable EPA classification in early 2025.
Recommended reading
- Scottish Startups Begin Year With £90M VC Investment
- Report: UK Spinouts Are Powering a Deeptech Boom
- DSIT Unveils Record £13.9 Billion R&D Funding
What’s our criteria?
What constitutes as a startup or not is, and perhaps always will be, up for debate. But for the purposes of this article, a startup has been classified as a company that has existed for no longer than three to four or so years, and is therefore new and emerging.
Further, in this instance, a startup has been defined as a company that doesn’t exceed a revenue run rate of $50 million, doesn’t have over 100 employees, and doesn’t have a valuation of $500 million or more, corresponding with the 50-100-500 rule created by Techcrunch’s Editor-in-Chief, Alex Wilhelm.
Lastly, what is it about these startups that make them companies that you “need to know about” over others? Well, that’s a bit more nuanced but broadly speaking, we tried to focus on startups that had achieved a tangible milestone in the last couple of years that we could leverage its inclusion on: this could be significant funding, expansion, awards, inclusion in prestigious programmes.
Beyond this, we aimed to pull novel and/or exciting ideas from across a diverse range of tech sectors, but it isn’t — and shouldn’t be taken as — an exhaustive list.
Which Scottish tech companies are on your radar?
If there’s a particular startup that you’d like to champion — and think would be at home in a list like this — feel free to let us know via LinkedIn, Twitter, or by email via the editor@digit.fyi address.
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