Nigel and Lesley Eccles and Rob Jones, co-founders of FanDuel will keynote EIE 2018, Scotland’s leading technology investment showcase. The company is one of EIE’s many success stories, having appeared at the event as a start-up in 2010.

Launched in 2009, fantasy sports company FanDuel became Scotland’s first tech ‘unicorn’, with a valuation of $1 billion, following a funding round of $275 million in 2015.  In January 2018 Nigel Eccles and Rob Jones announced the launch of Flick, a new company focused on the eSports and gaming market.

Also keynoting this year’s EIE are the technology pioneer, businesswoman and philanthropist Dame Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley and Eileen Burbidge, partner and co-founder of Passion Capital, called ‘Queen of British VCs‘ by Fortune magazine.

Tech Unicorn

Lesley Eccles told DIGIT: “EIE was an important part of our early journey from startup to global tech business and we are big supporters of the role the Informatics Ventures team play in supporting our most promising technology entrepreneurs and startups.  Experience has shown us that while it is possible to build really successful tech businesses from a base in Scotland, you also need to be able to grow the investor base outside of Scotland and events like EIE can help to put Scottish startups on the radar of investors in London, Europe, North America and Asia.”

Dr Steve Ewing, Director of Operations at Informatics Ventures, said: “The chance to get a firsthand account of the challenges associated with rapidly scaling a technology business like FanDuel is an experience that all of our delegates will want to share, not least our 2018 cohort of companies.  I’m sure Nigel, Lesley and Rob will impart how important persistence and graft is to product development, opening up target markets and securing the right set of investors to underpin growth plans.”

EIE 2018

EIE is Scotland’s largest technology investor showcase and the focal point of the Engage Invest Exploit programme. Created by Informatics Ventures in 2008, the organisation dedicated to helping Scotland’s technology entrepreneurs, EIE has become a showcase for the country’s start-ups to reach the global investment community.

In January 2018, Informatics Ventures announced 60 early-stage, high-growth tech companies that will potentially pitch for funding at the event come from sectors including AI, Data Science, Internet of Things (IoT), Cleantech, Digital Health and Cybersecurity.

Alumni

In the 10 years since it was created, EIE has been a springboard to over £500 million in funding.  Some of Scotland’s most notable technology companies have benefitted from the event in recent years, including FanDuel, Mallzee, Celtic Renewables, Two Big Ears (acquired by Facebook in 2016), ZoneFox, pureLiFi and MindMate.

EIE18 is supported by Scottish Enterprise and the University of Edinburgh and sponsors are Cazenove Capital, Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, Johnston Carmichael, LINC Scotland, Marks and Clerk, MBM Commercial, Scottish Equity Partners, Royal Bank of Scotland, TalentSpark (powered by Eden Scott) and the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics.

Partner organisations for EIE 2018 are The DataLab, Sevenfive Creative Design and VisitScotland.