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Spotlight | Some of Edinburgh’s Most Interesting Tech Startups in 2023
DIGIT shines a spotlight on a small handful of emerging, interesting tech startups that can be found across the Scottish capital.
Time and time again, Edinburgh is cited as a prime hub for startups. In fact, it often feels that a business quarter doesn’t go by without being reminded of the Scottish capital’s both growing and continued success on this front.
For instance, and perhaps most illustratively, business data company Beauhurst noted earlier this year that Edinburgh is the top UK location for startups outside London, and that 12.3% of all startups based in the Scottish capital fall in the three popular categories of artificial intelligence, digital security, and fintech.
While the above three sectors are certainly attracting inventive ideas and talent, innovative Edinburgh-based startups can be found across the whole breadth of tech, from cybersecurity to cloud, telecoms to IoT, and data to robotics — and everything else in between.
One particular aspect that’s helping to drive innovation across such sectors is the fact that Edinburgh is a leading attraction for university spinout companies. As it stands, Edinburgh is home to around 80 spinouts, largely from local institutions such as the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University.
Speaking of which, Edinburgh’s universities also offer an impressive array of entrepreneur-related initiatives and programmes to both students and non-students alike, including the University of Edinburgh’s AI Accelerator and Venture Builder Incubator programmes, and Heriot-Watt’s Global Incubator, among others.
Considering the capital city’s wealth of new and emerging tech startups — from the university spinouts to the firms whose founders are purely bootstrapping their way to success, and the countless other startup variations — DIGIT wanted to spotlight a handful of especially interesting ones that are on our radar.
Nine of Edinburgh’s most interesting tech startups in 2023
Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the most interesting tech startups in Edinburgh in 2023.
1. Bioliberty
Founded in 2020, Bioliberty is a biotech startup developing rehabilitation solutions for degenerative and traumatic conditions.
The company is currently working on a robotic glove, tailored towards people who’ve lost upper limb mobility and movement, particularly stroke patients. The glove is being built to aid with the opening and closing strength of the hand, and to also report important metrics concerning the patient’s rehabilitative progress.
In the first half of 2023, Bioliberty secured £2.2 million to help fund the glove’s development. The funding round was led by Edinburgh-based business angel syndicate Archangels, with additional participation from the University of Edinburgh’s Old College Capital, St. Andrews-based Eos Advisory, and Hanna Capital SEZC.
2. Looper
Co-founded by Yiqiang Zhao and Dr. Shashwat Ganguly, Looper is life cycle assessment software that’s being developed to help architects, manufacturers, and consultants measure the climate impact of products and projects.
After quantifying and visualising the carbon impact of construction projects, users can then strategise ways on how to go about reducing their carbon footprint, such as making changes in their product sourcing and strategies.
The company recently participated in the latest CivTech Demo Day at Edinburgh’s Roxy Assembly Rooms, where the co-founders presented the solution to an eager crowd wanting to know more about the ideas coming out of Edinburgh’s tech scene to help solve significant environment-related issues.
3. Bennu.ai
Another Edinburgh tech startup helping businesses to reduce carbon is Bennu.ai. Founded in 2021, the firm has developed a smart waste bin that sorts waste automatically as we collectively move towards a net-zero economy.
The smart bin, dubbed “Janus,” uses cutting-edge sensors that’ve been developed in-house to sort general waste, helping to ensure that what’s recyclable can be recycled.
Around this time last year, the startup’s founder, Jonathan Feldstein — who’s undertaking a PhD in neuro-symbolic AI at the University of Edinburgh — won the Growth Innovation Award at the Inspire Launch Grow Awards ceremony, which celebrated the ambition and accomplishments of the university’s entrepreneurs. The Growth Innovation Award aims to recognise companies with the potential for high-growth.
4. Bevvy
At the intersection of technology and whisky — that major Scottish export — is Bevvy.
Bevvy is a whisky discovery platform and marketplace. Via its iOS and Androids apps, mobile phone cameras can scan and identify bottles of whisky. The whisky is then profiled with content relating to tasting notes, distillery history, cask number, bottle numbers, and rarity scores.
The company was co-founded by Laurie Black and Luke Heron in 2021. According to the founders, they’re seeing tens and tens of thousands of user scans on a monthly basis. It’s also been recently announced that Bevvy has become Hibernian FC’s new front of shirt sponsor and principal partner.
5. DeepQA
Thomas Cartwright and Marise Treseder are the co-founders of DeepQA, a tool which utilises AI to automate software testing, thereby helping companies to focus developer resources on more complex, knotty problems.
The pair both studied artificial intelligence at Masters level at the University of Edinburgh.
A few months ago, the co-founders pitched their product at the Venture Builder Incubator Showcase at the Scottish National Gallery. The showcase was for the latest cohort of the University of Edinburgh-run incubator, which helps founders to drive their data-driven ideas forward.
As a result of the showcase, DeepQA won the Judge’s Choice Award.
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6. Nova Finance
Founded in 2021, Nova Finance is a non-custodial programmable asset protocol that’s being built for decentralised finance, or DeFi.
The aim of the Nova platform is to help users develop investment portfolios while automating traditionally complex investor and yield strategies.
“Fundamentally, Nova Finance is about making really complex financial skills accessible to anyone,” said Tom Sichel, one of the crypto startup’s co-founders, in a DIGIT feature article published September last year.
The startup secured $3 million (£2.3m~) in funding for their idea in 2021.
As Sichel mentioned to DIGIT, “We’re in a very bearish world where it’s quite difficult to raise capital, and a lot of people are being more cautious in the crypto space. However, with our investment in place we are working on our own road map.”
7. Firestoke Games
Firestoke Games is a publisher of indie PC and console games, and with its titles it aims to “spark joy, surprise, and delight in a global audience of players.”
An example of an upcoming title to be published by Firestoke is Moonloop Games’ Hauntii, an adventure game built around a haunting mechanic that lets players possess the environment and its creatures.
PolyCrunch Games’ Falling Out, a 2D roguelite adventure where players take control of two unexpected adventurers and explore ancient kingdoms and discover treasures, is an example of one of Firestoke’s already-published titles.
In 2022, the Scottish Games Network reported that the publisher had secured $2.2 million (£1.7m~) in funding, led by Hiro Capital.
8. Sticklr
As a regtech — regulatory technology — startup, Stickler’s aim is to bring managed documentation, testing, and regulatory assurance to the investment platform industry, providing a unifying map of rules and dependencies.
The startup, which was founded in 2020 by Mike Stevens — who has worked in the platform business for over 18 years — boasts a team of over 10 employees.
“Our home is Edinburgh, and we strongly believe the local market can provide us with a depth of talent, experience and passion that rivals any other location in the UK,” stated the startup on the FinTech Scotland website.
9. Swurf
Concluding the nine-strong list is Swurf, a venue sourcing app for remote workers looking for welcoming venues to work freely in. It was founded by Nikki Gibson in 2021.
Swurf — which is free for users — was first launched in Edinburgh, but has since expanded to Leeds. The venues include ‘casual’ spaces, i.e. bars, cafes, and community spaces, as well as ‘professional’ spaces, e.g. a co-working space or dedicated hot desk area.
In 2022, Gareth Williams, the co-founder of Edinburgh tech unicorn Skyscanner, as well as Anna Lagerqvist Christopherson, the co-owner of Edinburgh-based Boda Bars, both pledged an undisclosed sum to support Swurf’s growth.
How has an “interesting” Edinburgh tech “startup” been defined?
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, concerning the “interesting” part for this article’s selection formula, 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 new, interesting Edinburgh 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.
