Welcome to the latest edition of DIGIT’s monthly Movers and Shakers column.

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

This month’s column features a stellar mix of cutting-edge organisations and key players doing exciting things — read on to learn more!

Recruitment

Utopi

Fresh from raising their £5m Series A with SNIB, Utopi have been pro-active in acquiring top digital talent into their product team. Ross Gledhill joins as Director of Engineering, moving from his previous role as VP, Senior Lead Software Engineer at JP Morgan Chase in Glasgow.

Owen Maginnis joins as Security Architect, from his previous role at The Student Loans Company. Ivan Panasiuk joins to lead their QA capability having previously worked for US-based software delivery business Forte Group. Last but not least, Ugnė Černiauskaitė joins as UX designer from Stockholm-based bank, SEB.

Archangels

Scottish investment syndicate, Archangels, has appointed Professor Adam Stokes as its Academic in Residence.

Professor Stokes, Co-Lead of The National Robotarium and Deputy Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, will help Archangels review investment opportunities from Scotland’s most exciting life sciences and technology businesses.

Professor Stokes said: “Throughout my academic and entrepreneurial journey, I have always been passionate about nurturing Scottish tech start-ups. My membership of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy of Scotland and being selected for MIT/Harvard entrepreneurial development programme as part of the Scotland CanDo initiative were formative experiences which sparked my passion for working with and developing some of Scotland’s most exciting growing businesses.

“Working with Archangels gives me the opportunity to help other entrepreneurs in the Scottish life sciences and tech-ecosystems to realise their potential.”

Read more here.

Eos

Eos, the St Andrews-headquartered impact investment firm, has expanded its portfolio in Q1 of 2023, as well as strengthening its leadership team.

Its latest team hire, Jill Arnold — the former Head of SIS Ventures — has joined the Scots investment firm as Investor Relations Director as the company looks to accelerate growth.

The recent hire strengthens a leadership team that also appointed Andrew Durkie as Partner, and Andy Lothian and Sandy Kennedy as Non-Executive Growth Advisors in 2022.

“The Eos team and I feel very fortunate to have her on board,” said Ana Stewart, Eos Partner and chair and author of the recently published Scottish commissioned Pathways: A New Approach for Women in Entrepreneurship review.

Read more here.

Thorntons

Full-service Scottish law firm Thorntons has strengthened its specialist data protection team with the appointment of a new Data Protection Officer in the Edinburgh office.

Sajidha Iqbal joins the firm as it responds to a growth in demand from its public sector client base.

As an accredited specialist in data protection, privacy and information security, Sajidha brings over 8 years of experience to the role.

She joins Thornton’s specialist data protection services team working alongside specialists Loretta Maxfield and Morgan O’Neill, as part of the wider team to provide data protection law and best practice advice to businesses, charities, and public sector organisations across Scotland.

Read more here.

Mac Recruit Group

Glasgow-based Mac Recruit Group (MRG), which offers recruitment services to a number of sectors, is entering the tech sphere on the back of record growth in the Scottish ecosystem.

Stephen Hill will join as director, and Kevin Allan will be a principal consultant.

The two new members have a history in the tech sector, and say their new position in MRG will give them an opportunity to do things differently to grow its tech vertical.

“Although we are a globally focused business, it’s an exciting time in Scotland for tech companies. There has been a resurgence in Scotland’s tech industry and MRG are benefitting from their growth,” said Kevin Allan, the new principal consultant.

Read more here.

2i Testing

2i Testing, the test consulting and automation firm, has announced the appointment of Donald McLaughlin as their new Director of Sales.

McLaughlin brings more than 30 years of tech sector sales leadership experience from his previous roles at Cisco, Salesforce, and Siemens. He remains a passionate advocate for the importance of digital skills, and is a former chair of Scotland’s Digital Economy Skills Group and currently a STEM Ambassador.

Mclaughlin commented, “It’s great to be joining the 2i team at such an exciting time for the business as we begin a new chapter of growth and build on some of the amazing successes we’ve had over the last few years. We’ve recently achieved our Great Place to Work accreditation which is a fantastic endorsement of the people centric culture that’s been created within the business.”

Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT)

Seven leading figures in the UK’s science and technology sectors – including two astronauts – have been appointed as the first-ever members of the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) board.

The non-executive members of the DSIT board will provide overarching strategic guidance and insight to the government, as it looks to distribute government resources to improve innovation in the sector.

The seven non-executive members of the DSIT board are: Shonnel Malani, Tim Peake CMG, Ron Dennis CBE, Baroness Alison Wolf CBE, Melissa Di Donato, Saul Klein, and Professor Jason Chin FRS.

Read more here.

Partnerships

Scottish Business Network, CENSIS Technology Solutions, and CivTech

Scottish Business Network has been officially announced as the Cluster Driver Organisation (CDO) for Scotland’s GovTech sector, in a strategic partnership with CENSIS Technology Solutions (CTS) and the CivTech programme.

This appointment comes as part of the Scottish Government’s ongoing bid to drive digital transformation and innovation across the country.

Russell Dalgleish, Chair of Scottish Business Network, expressed his delight at the appointment, stating: “We are honoured to be chosen as the Cluster Driver Organisation for Scotland’s GovTech sector. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to work closely with CTS, CivTech and the Scottish Government to develop a thriving and innovative ecosystem that will benefit citizens, businesses and the public sector alike.”

Read more here.

Marine Biopolymers and the University of Glasgow

Marine Biopolymers, experts in extracting natural polymers from seaweed for various applications, teams with the University of Glasgow in a new venture to explore the use of tailored alginates – a naturally-occurring material found in brown seaweed – to help develop batteries using silicon as an alternative to the currently used graphite.

Kirsty Neilson, product development manager at Marine Biopolymers Limited, said: “This is an exciting first venture into energy storage and we are hoping to be in a position to take a commercial solution to the market in the next three to five years.

“The new technology could underpin an entirely new supply chain and manufacturing market here in Scotland and we have already had encouraging conversations with potential partners. It would be great to see seaweed species indigenous to Scottish coastal waters being used to power everyday electronics and technology in the future.”

Read more here.

BAE Systems and Microsoft

BAE Systems, the UK government defense contractor, has signed a ‘strategic’ agreement with Microsoft, aiming to support faster and easier development, deployment, and management of digital defence capabilities in an increasingly data-centric world.

The collaboration brings together BAE Systems’ knowledge of building digital systems for militaries and governments with Microsoft’s approach to developing applications using its Azure Cloud platform.

Commenting on the new agreement, Julian Cracknell, Chief Technology and Information Officer at BAE Systems, said: “Our innovative agreement with Microsoft will give us easier access to tools that help us make sense of this information for our customers – allowing armed forces to stay ahead of rapidly evolving threats, whilst maintaining the highest levels of security.”

Read more here.

Optima Partners and H2O.ai

Optima Partners, the Edinburgh-based business consultancy service, will work with H2O.ai to develop specialist resources and solutions for financial services.

The companies will work together to address challenges in machine learning with credit risk, fraud defenses, and customer service. Optima is made up of advisors, consultants, technologists, and data scientists who assist businesses in improving services, managing finances, and navigating customer decision processes.

“With an initial focus on Financial Services, we are looking forward to working with our current clients, and new opportunities, to bring the power of massively scalable AI and Machine Learning to support and protect consumers in their day to day interactions with Banks and Insurance businesses,” said Alan Crawley, CEO of Optima Partners.

Read more here.

MIRACL and Edinburgh Napier

Multi-factor authentication tool MIRACL has teamed up with Edinburgh Napier University, backed by significant investment from Innovate UK.

The six figure investment from Innovate UK will allow MIRACL and Edinburgh Napier to engage in a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme with a focus on cryptography.

The investment into this partnership was led by Innovate UK, which is a national innovation agency. Its aim is to help UK businesses grow through the development of new products and services.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It will allow us to build on the knowledge of MIRACL and move forward our vision of creating a more trusted, secure and privacy-respecting internet,” said Professor Bill Buchanan, academic team lead at Edinburgh Napier.

Read more here.

Skills Development Scotland, Highland Council, and the Scottish Government

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) is working with the Scottish Government and Highland Council on a digital skills initiative which aims to train volunteers, provide teaching resources and tech kit — and trial online delivery to ensure people in rural areas don’t miss out.

The pilot programme kicked off on 27 April when the first-ever hybrid tech club event for Highland secondary school pupils took place. Participants were tasked with coding “a data selfie,” learning data science and coding skills to create their own unique piece of art.

Phil Ford, Head of Digital Economy and Financial Services at SDS said: “The digital skills gap in Scotland has now become critical and many tech jobs go unfilled every year.

“This is particularly true of the Highland economy where digital skills and jobs are now essential in non-tech sectors like agriculture, energy, tourism, food and drink and the creative industries.”

Read more here.

Delta Capita and Aveni

Delta Capita — the global capital markets consulting, managed services, and technology provider — has partnered with Aveni, the Scots regtech company, to advance its consumer duty offering by providing their clients with access to Aveni’s AI technology solutions.

“At Delta Capita, we are passionate about solving our clients’ problems by combining quality advisory services with the latest technology solutions, and so the decision to team up with Aveni was an easy one,” said Karan Kapoor, Head of Risk and Regulatory Consulting at Delta Capita.

“Aveni’s market leading NLP platform is fast and easy to implement and has been tailored specifically to support firms with the fast-approaching Consumer Duty regulation. This is why it has already been adopted by a number of credible clients.”

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Awards

Northern Tech Awards 2023

GP Bullhound’s Northern Tech Awards hosted their tenth anniversary awards ceremony, celebrating the companies who grew and made an impact throughout the Northern tech ecosystem this year.

The awards, which started in 2014, showcase fast-growing, promising companies in the North of the UK. This year’s event was held in the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh and hosted over 250 people.

The awards kicked off with the Northern Star Awards for early stage companies: Gig Pig won the Potential International Success Award; UMA won the Leadership Award, Sticky won the Innovation Award, and Recast won the Overall Judges Award.

Nine other awards were also announced. To see who else won, read more here.

Imperial War Museums’ War Games Jam

A team of Edinburgh Napier University students have triumphed at a UK-wide video game design competition with an original depiction of life in ‘fascist-occupied’ Italy.

The team made up of students from ENU’s BScs in Digital Media & Interaction Design and Sound Design won Best Concept at Imperial War Museums’ (IWM) War Games Jam, while claiming the highest overall score.

Drawing visual inspiration from Guillermo del Toro’s movie adaptation of Pinocchio, their game concept ‘Aging Like Buildings’ takes the player through a story narrated by a grandfather reliving his harsh experience during the 1940s in Italy.

Read more here.

UK Space Agency Accelerator

Scots entrepreneur Nic Ross has been named as one of the innovative four entrepreneurs welcomed to the UK Space Agency’s accelerator programme this year.

Having always had a love for space, Edinburgh-based Nic Ross followed his dreams completing a PhD in Astrophysics at Durham University. After hearing more about space sustainability, Nic founded his own space sustainability business, Niparo, in 2020 and since graduating has focussed entirely on its success.

The other candidates, based throughout England include: Myles Harris, founding CEO, Space Health Research based in London; Ashley Johnson, founding CEO, Applied Atomics, also based in London; and Portia Bowman, founding CEO of Growbotics Space Ltd based in South East England.

Read more here.

KPMG’s Tech Innovator in the UK Competition

KPMG, the professional services company, has launched its annual Tech Innovator in the UK competition, the 2023 edition marking its 10th year.

The competition has previously served as a springboard for tech companies such as What3Words, SafetoNet, FIDOTech, and 2022 winner HiiROC, who went on to win the global final during Web Summit.

The competition is open to scale up businesses from early-stage to accelerated growth, who are being invited to pitch their innovations and present their growth ambitions to panels of industry experts. The deadline for entries is 19 May.

An initial heat will take place in KPMG’s Edinburgh office on 20 June to find a final shortlist of innovators representing Scotland. Those shortlisted will be invited to a gala event to find the standout 2023 UK tech innovator.

Read more here.

The Defence and Security Accelerator’s Human Augmentation Competition

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) has launched a new themed competition called Human Augmentation. Human Augmentation (HA) refers to the use of science or technology to temporarily or permanently modify human performance.

This encompasses a range of technologies, including exoskeletons, wearables, genetics, brain interfaces, pharmaceuticals, and bioinformatics.

This themed competition aims to develop novel, generation-after-next (GAN) prototype HA technologies which can be harnessed safely and ethically, that mitigate human performance as the limiting factor in a UK defence environment.

Read more here.

Computing’s Security Excellence Awards

Marion Chapman, a cyber security specialist who retrained after retiring from a 37-year career in the civil service, was nominated for Computing’s Security Excellence Award.

Chapman had planned to quit work before being persuaded to join Cyber Security Scotland. Just three years after embarking her new career, Marion was shortlisted for Security Woman of the Year in the UK IT industry’s Oscars and praised as an inspiration for others.

She said: “It was hard to imagine a new career having spent so long in the civil service, and I didn’t really consider that I had many transferable skills.

“To now be nominated for an award just three years after starting out on a new career is a nice surprise.”