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

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

Scottish EDGE Appoints New Chair

Simon Hannah is taking on the role of chair at Scottish EDGE, succeeding David Shearer who completed a nine-year term in the position at the end of September.

Hannah brings with him experience and leadership from his role at a fifth-generation family business JW Filshill. The company generates a turnover of £203 million and employs 240 staff to supply products to 1,400 businesses across Scotland. In addition to this, Hannah also has experience as chair for Unitas Wholesale Ltd, which is the UK’s largest wholesale buying consortium, as well as being actively involved in the YPO Scotland chapter.

“He joins us at a time when his commitment to the business environment in Scotland will prove invaluable as we continue to work with our stakeholders, clients and wider business community to help rebuild and grow our economy. I am delighted to welcome Simon to our Board of Directors.” continued McDonald,” said Evelyn McDonald, CEO of Scottish EDGE.

Read more here.

Scotcoin Appoints New Advisory Partner

Scotcoin has appointed Blockraise, the Zurich-based Web3 venture accelerator firm, to support its plans for the next phase of its development.

Blockraise will play a key role – similar to a nominated adviser – in making the ethical cryptocurrency accessible to a global audience. Among other areas, the firm will advise Scotcoin on its liquidity strategy, community expansion, and tokenomics design ahead of the project listing its tokens publicly in the next few months.

“Appointing Blockraise is the next major step in our strategy to expand the Scotcoin community. The firm is well respected in the global cryptocurrency space and we look forward to working with the team on this next phase of Scotcoin’s development, bringing the token to a much wider audience and helping to provide food, clothing, and shelter to those who need it,” said Temple Melville, CEO of The Scotcoin Project CIC.

Read more here.

Zühlke Adds Group Head of Talent

Zühlke, the global innovation service provider, has hired Sandra Blake as its group head of talent. With Blake joining the firm’s fast-growing Scottish office, she will lead the talent function across Zühlke’s international network.

Linda Scott, a Zühlke director based in Edinburgh, said: “It’s notable that we have executives with global remits operating out of our Scotland base, our headcount here is now up to 16, and it’s also encouraging to see that around two out of three of our team are women.”

Sandra Blake herself commented: “It’s an exciting time to be joining Zühlke, who continue to be in hiring mode to support our future global growth plans. What is already striking is the high calibre of our global teams, supporting so many amazing brands across the world.”

Read more here.

Edinburgh Napier Enterprise Hub Appoints Entrepreneur in Residence

Bright Red Triangle (BRT), the enterprise hub at Edinburgh Napier University, has appointed Nigel Chadwick as its inaugural entrepreneur in residence.

Nigel will bring extensive expertise to the newly created role, which will offer invaluable guidance to the BRT community. His responsibilities will include mentoring, advising, and supporting emerging entrepreneurs as they embark on their entrepreneurial journeys.

Commenting on his new role as entrepreneur in residence at BRT, Nigel Chadwick said: “To be entrepreneur in residence at ENU presents a fantastic opportunity to assist students, staff, and alumni on their entrepreneurial journey and to add value and drive scale through sharing my experience and skills with these formative as well as scaling teams.”

Read more here.

Quorum Cyber Appoints New Marketing Director

Quorum Cyber, a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Security, has named Rebecca Court as its Marketing Director to fuel the next phase of growth for the company worldwide. She joins Quorum Cyber’s Senior Leadership Team.

Rebecca joins with strong experience of leading high-performing marketing teams and managing integrations following mergers and acquisitions for private equity-backed scale-up businesses in the technology services industry.

“Rebecca brings all the qualities, attributes, experience and know-how we need to become the first UK-headquartered unicorn in the cybersecurity industry, and I’m excited to see the results,” says Quorum Cyber CEO Federico Charosky. “I’m looking forward to working with her to enhance our customer advocacy campaign and delight our growing number of customers around the globe.”

Cybit Appoints New Marketing Lead

Cybit has appointed Thomas Lynch as their new Marketing Lead to oversee the group marketing function.

He joins Cybit with nearly 20 years’ experience including previous marketing roles at iomart, Akari, VKY Intelligent Automation and Systal Technology solutions during which he worked collaboratively with leading technology vendors including Microsoft, Check Point, Cisco and F5.

Cybit was formed in 2022 as part of a strategic growth plan bringing together three long established MSP’s Perfect Image, Technique and Cyphra as a single brand to create one of the UK’s leading IT Managed Services, Cyber Security and Data Analytics providers.

Kelly Symkiss CEO said: “We are excited to have Thomas join the team and bring with him a wealth of experience in sales and digital marketing across our areas of expertise of cloud, data and cyber security. We’re already seeing the value he will bring in a short period of time.”

N4 Announces New Strategic Hires

N4 Partners (N4) has announced the appointments of Alan MacLeod and Richard Elliot, as the Glasgow-headquartered investment and advisory firm continues to bolster its ranks since its founding in 2020.

Richard Elliot joins N4 as its new director of property, signalling a strategic move for the firm into real estate investments. He brings a wealth of investment experience, having initially started his corporate banking career at the Bank of Scotland before spending 12 years at Maven Capital Partners, where in his role as investment director he focused on originating and transacting real estate projects across the UK.

Alan MacLeod, who’s joining N4 as a director, has amassed over two decades of experience holding senior finance roles within a diverse mix of global healthcare and energy sector businesses operating across complex international territories.

Read more here.

xDesign Makes Two New Senior Hires

xDesign, the Edinburgh-headquartered digital consultancy, has announced two new appointments to its senior team.

Grant Thomas has joined the firm as its chief commercial officer (CCO), with Susheel Dodeja joining as director of business development.

These two new appointments follow a year of momentum for xDesign, which has seen it secure minority investment from Soho Square Capital and join forces with innovation and design company CreateFuture.

Grant and Susheel are set to continue the work the company has done to bolster its offering in the market, each bringing a wealth of experience in the financial services and public sector, respectively.

Talking about xDesign’s senior hires, xDesign’s founder and CEO, Euan Andrews, said: “In making these latest appointments, we now have two senior figures that not only bring a wealth of proven leadership experience but also provide us with the knowledge and expertise we need to expand and consolidate our footprint in a number of important industry sectors.”

Read more here.

Be-IT Makes New Key Hire

Be-IT announced its latest key hire, Gillian Wilkinson, who joins the leadership team as Client Solutions Director to help the Group drive forward with its ambitious strategic expansion of Be-IT Projects.

Launched in the aftermath of the global pandemic, the Group’s managed services arm has steadily grown by offering an innovative approach to delivering solutions and the skills needed to accelerate change – an offering which complements that of the Group’s very successful recruitment division.

“I’m mightily impressed by all the experience and knowledge I’m surrounded by here. There is a fantastic service ethic, all led by Nikola Kelly, Be-IT Group’s CEO. As illustrated by her latest gong, Business Leader of the Year 2023 no less, she’s a visionary who somehow manages to balance being driven and energetic with being human and empathetic – no mean feat. I’m really looking forward to working with her and the wider team,” said Wilkinson.

Partnerships

Carcinotech Partners with CELLINK

Carcinotech and CELLINK have announced a collaborative partnership to develop and commercialise protocols for the biofabrication of 3D bioprinted tumor models based on cancer cell lines that improve accuracy and rapidly speed up drug development processes, which the company says will drive down development costs and enable an improved output.

Edinburgh-headquartered Carcinotech produced 3D bioprinted micro-tumors, as well as 3D models based on cancer cell lines, incorporating CELLINK’s technology for automated workflows that have been iterated on over the last 3 years.

“We are excited to continue working with CELLINK, a global leader in 3D bioprinting. Their unique technology as well as high quality bioink, provide revolutionary capabilities to the wider life science and drug discovery market.

“Their extensive knowledge in 3D bioprinting combined with our expertise in oncology and 3D modelling will help fulfil our shared commitment to accelerate oncology drug development pipelines.” said Ishani Malhotra0, CEO and Founder of Carcinotech.

Read more here.

Alba Bank Enters New Partnerships to Manage Payments for SMEs

Alba Bank, the UK challenger with an SME focus, has partnered with ClearBank, real-time clearing and embedded banking specialists, to manage payments for its customers, as well as SaaS cloud-native lending engine Mambu, to enhance its lending offerings.

Alba Bank will be leveraging ClearBank and Mambu’s partnership to offer near real-time payments to its customer base and will be accessing these services via a single API integration. Alba will be able to connect with multiple payment schemes, including Bacs, CHAPS and Faster Payments, all allowing transactions to clear rapidly and over a secure platform.

Sandeep Kadam, chief technology officer at Alba Bank, said: “Building our bank with industry-leading partners is the best way for Alba to scale quickly, in the knowledge that we’re being supported by the very best in the business.

“ClearBank has established a superb reputation among financial institutions and will provide us with the speed, agility and security that we need to help our SME customers grow and prosper.”

Read more here.

Alba Bank Partners with Mambu

Alba Bank – one of the UK’s newest challenger banks dedicated to supporting SMEs, has announced that it will partner with Mambu‘s cloud banking platform to manage its lending services, as well as its retail and business deposits.

Nick Lawler, market director for Northern Europe at Mambu, says: “Now more than ever, the availability of finance is key to the success of all SMEs. SME pain points need to be properly acknowledged by banks, as success rates for loan applications are 20% lower than for large enterprises.

“By pivoting to Mambu, along with a growing number of neobanks in the UK, Alba is in good stead as it continues to transform this sector of banking, supporting small and medium-sized businesses to reach their potential. We look forward to working with Alba as it supports direct lending to SMEs and fuels economic growth in Scotland and the wider UK region.”

Read more here.

Tech for Good Alliance Partners With GoCodeGreen

The Tech for Good Alliance, the UK-wide skilled tech volunteering framework programme created by the Scottish Tech Army, has announced a strategic partnership with carbon diagnosis and decisioning platform, GoCodeGreen.

By joining forces with GoCodeGreen, the Tech for Good Alliance seeks to take a leap towards optimising the ecological footprint of the technology and software solutions delivered to not-for-profit organisations.

GoCodeGreen has developed what it says is the ‘first and most complete’ carbon diagnosis and decisioning platform for software, enabling organisations to decarbonise their software and technology.

“We are excited to collaborate with GoCodeGreen, a pioneering force in the sustainability arena,” said Alistair Forbes, CEO of the Scottish Tech Army.

Read more here.

Unbaggaged Joins Forces with Bookster

Unbaggaged is an innovative luggage storage service designed to enhance travel convenience. It recently entered into a strategic partnership with Bookster, a leading online holiday booking system.

This partnership is set to transform the travel experience for customers, making it more enjoyable and hassle-free, especially for those visiting Edinburgh and Glasgow.

“Joining forces with Bookster in this innovative venture, we’re paving the way for an effortless, luggage-free travel experience. Together, we’re committed to making your journey in Edinburgh and Glasgow even more enjoyable,” said Unbaggaged founder Janani Prabhakaran.

Recommended reading

• DIGIT Deal Roundup | October 2023
• DIGIT Movers and Shakers | September 2023
• DIGIT Expo 2023 | Just Two Weeks to Go!

Awards

Winners of Converge Awards Announced

Open to students, graduates, and staff from across Scotland’s universities, Converge seeks to support new businesses through intensive business training, support, equity free cash prizes and professional advice from its roster of industry partners.

Creating businesses with environmental and societal impact has been the resounding motivator for this year’s Converge Award winners.

At the 13th annual ceremony, Scotland’s springboard for university founders recognised spinouts and startups which have the potential to transform society, people and planet for the better.

Crowned the Converge Challenge winner, founder of N-ovatio-N, Dr Georgina Robinson is tackling the growing problem of organic waste in the agricultural industry. The company is providing an innovative circular economy solution to upcycle aquaculture waste into high-value feed ingredients in the form of marine worms.

Read more here.

Amiqus wins Legal Technology Award

The 20th annual Scottish Legal Awards have recognised Leith-based scale-up Amiqus as winners of the Legal Technology Award 2023.

In celebration of its award win, Amiqus will donate £1,000 for each new account opened over October to support the company’s charity partners at The Scottish Refugee Council. This contribution will assist in their vital work of integrating and settling the families of asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland.

Gregor Angus, Senior business development manager at Amiqus, said: “The Scottish Legal Awards recognise and celebrate the achievements of those working in and supporting the legal sector. We’re delighted to have won this award particularly based upon the scale of and the respect we have for the other finalists. This recognition from a panel of independent judges is fantastic, and is a testament to the hard work and effort of everyone across our teams at Amiqus.”

Edinburgh-based Ukrainian COO Wins Space Award

Chief Operating Officer Daria Filichkina was rewarded by a judging panel of fifty space and science experts for her role in steering the firm past the fifty-client mark despite the turmoil of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which saw her flee the country and drive across Europe to Scotland with her son and mother to settle temporarily in the UK.

Having worked within the country’s space industry since 2017, she chose to locate to Edinburgh where she has since helped develop the Ukrainian Businesswomen in Scotland network, raised money for displaced Ukrainians overseas and supported the construction of a bomb shelter for a Ukrainian nursery, whilst also taking on dual mentorship roles to help guide students into the UK space industry.

On winning the award, Filichkina said: “I may have been given this incredible honour due to my support of the UK’s fast-growing commercial space sector, but in reality it is the industry that has supported me. When you are forced to leave your home, husband and family due to bombing and violence, your life is completely turned upside down and suddenly your focus is on keeping your family safe and positive. In such a situation, work is the only ‘normal’ thing you have left. This award is dedicated to our hardworking ‘Astro Agents’, the partners that kept faith in us and the friends I have in the space community who reached out and kept me positive.”

Dundee Students Win International Video Game Awards

Two student-made games from Abertay University secured awards at this year’s International Serious Play Awards. The two games – Powerchair Football and The Healing Tree – were created as part of a coursework project.

Powerchair Football earned Silver and the Healing Tree earned Bronze in the student category of the awards. These accolades come from students in their third year at Abertay’s School of Design and Informatics. These games exemplify the concept of ‘applied games,’ meaning they focus on issues related to social concerns, learning, and education.

“It’s a very different kind of game. It’s not really something that’s been done before. We got in touch with our client, the Tayside Dynamos, and went along to their training sessions. In our first meeting, it became pretty clear what they were wanting from us: something that was realistic, something that represented the sport in a way that they were happy with,” said Jake Brodie, producer of Blueshift Studios.

Read more here.

Meet the Scottish Games Awards 2023 Winners

15 winners emerged from the star-studded Scottish Games Awards ceremony on the 2nd of November.
The awards ceremony, held in Glasgow, was opened by minister for independence Jamie Hepburn, in replacement of First Minister Humza Yousaf, who was originally scheduled to open the ceremony.

This year’s awards had fifteen winning categories, chosen from a shortlist of 45 finalists. Three new categories were introduced this year: Rising Star, Spirit of Scotland, and Pure Quality awards.

Read more here.

Winners Announced at 2023 Scottish Financial Technology Awards

The ceremony brought together more than 200 people from across the financial services and fintech community.

The winners of the 2023 Scottish Financial Technology Awards have been announced, with BR-DGE securing the ‘Fintech of the Year’ award on the evening.

Hosted at Edinburgh’s Dynamic Earth, the awards brought together more than 200 people from across the Scottish financial services and fintech landscape to recognise outstanding companies and individuals.

Read more here.

Scotland Women in Technology Awards 2023 Winners Revealed

Scotland’s women in technology and diversity champions were celebrated at a prestigious awards ceremony in Glasgow, compèred by STV’s Laura Boyd.

The Scotland Women in Technology (SWiT) awards recognised individuals and organisations from the financial services sector as winners in four of the ten award categories, with Gillian McLennan, managing director leading capital management technology at JP Morgan taking home Leader of the Year. Gillian was commended by the SWiT judges for her “make-it happen” attitude and for being a “great communicator and role model” as well as “getting in at the grassroots”.

“Being in a room of amazing trailblazing women is inspiring, and we still have a lot of work to do,” Gillian said to the supportive room of attendees.

Read more here.