Scottish tech founders have raised more than £257 million in investment since joining Techscaler, Scotland’s national tech scaleup programme, a £139 million year-on-year increase, according to official figures.    

Published today, Techscaler’s latest annual report points to a year marked by major progress and accelerating scaleup activity, with the body now counting 1,591 member companies, a significant leap from 978 in 2024.

Backed by Techscaler’s investor network, which includes more than 80 investors and firms overseeing billions in assets, these companies have gone on to raise millions in fresh funding, with the most notable raise over the last year being Wordsmith’s $25 million Series A, one of Scotland’s largest early-stage deals, which propelled the legal-tech to a valuation of almost £18.5 million.

However, despite Techscaler’s attempts to build a sustainable investor network, the figures show that Scottish Enterprise, wholly operated by and accountable to the Scottish Government, is still by far the biggest fund manager investing in high-growth Scottish firms. 

Backed by taxpayer cash, the public body participated in 288 equity deals between 2023 and 2025, light years ahead of its closest private sector peers, like Equity Gap (54 deals), Par Equity (48), and Kelvin Capital (45).  

For that reason, the report highlights Techscaler’s focus on building investor–founder relationships, having facilitated more than fifty introductions in the past year, a role which Jon Hope, interim CEO of CodeBase, the Scottish Government’s delivery partner for the programme, argues is central to its mission.

“Strong ecosystems rely on local angels writing early cheques to promising but inexperienced founders,” said Hope, in a foreword to the report.

“In Scotland, this is slower and less confident than it needs to be. Not all angels understand tech, venture risk, or the pace required, so capital doesn’t always reach founders when momentum matters most.

“Scotland has brilliant founders, but not yet enough proven at building globally scalable companies. This, not capital scarcity, is often the real constraint.”

While Techscaler has focused on helping bootstrapped firms find new avenues of funding, those behind the programme argue it is as much about skills development, building partnerships, and mentoring, which Techscaler calls one of its “strongest levers for strengthening Scotland’s startup ecosystem”.

Techscaler said that its mentor network now includes more than 154 experts across critical industries such as engineering, cybersecurity, sales and leadership, as well as fast-emerging sectors like AI and fintech, with 345 businesses taking part in mentoring sessions last year. 

Meanwhile, the programme saw more than 1,200 enrolments across its Discovery, Catalyst, Reforge and AI Discovery scaleup initiatives, with 108 high-growth firms supported in raising £209 million to date. 

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There is still plenty of work to be done, though. The numbers show that, despite wild growth, Scotland’s tech ecosystem is still a fraction of the size of England’s. For example, while Scotland’s 1,614 tech firms may have raised £671 million to date, England has 24,395, which have claimed £16.7 billion. 

Even against a country of comparable economics and demographics, Scotland is not as competitive as it could be, with the Republic of Ireland, for example, home to 4,658 tech firms that have raked in €1.48 billion, a fact that has not dented the Scottish Government’s ambitions.

Welcoming the annual report at the opening of Techscaler’s new hub at Water’s Edge in Dundee, First Minister John Swinney said: “Techscaler was created to strengthen Scotland’s entrepreneurial environment by giving founders the skills, support and connections needed to build globally competitive companies.

“It is encouraging to see this vision reflected in this year’s results, with a remarkable £257 million now raised by founder members since launch, more than double the previous year. This figure highlights Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is becoming even more connected, collaborative and globally engaged – raising Scotland’s profile as an ambitious innovation nation.”