Tech Nation has announced the top 33 early stage scaleups to watch in 2023 in every region, representing the brightest of UK tech with the most potential to scale in the year to come, with three Scottish winners.

The 33 regional ‘Rising Stars’ comprise the three most promising tech companies from 11 regions and nations of the UK including East of England, North East, South West, Midlands,  Scotland, North West, London, Wales, South East, Northern Ireland, Yorkshire & the Humber.

Selected companies or ‘Regional Winners’ will benefit from significant profile raising, masterclasses and networking opportunities to put their business in front of leading investors, influencers and corporates.

Companies from the 2023 Rising Stars cohort include companies like Safer Date – the only dating app which carries out real-time, biometric ID checks to create a safe environment to users, through to Artscapy, a platform dedicated to redefining art buying, collecting and investing by removing archaic and opaque business practices, and robotics company Danu who have developed a robotic system for the recycling and waste management industry to significantly increase recycling efficiency.

While 80% of startups fail within their first 2-5 years, over 95% of startups on Tech Nation’s growth programmes have gone on to scale, including companies from Rising Stars.

This year, ambitious growth plans are evident among the finalists which Tech Nation will support – 82% plan to expand internationally in the next 12 months and 97% are currently raising investment.

Companies have secured funding from a variety of sources demonstrating the range of options available to UK entrepreneurs: 44% have had VC funding, 44% have had angel funding, 38% have had government funding, and 21% have had funding from family and friends.

Key trends amongst the 2023 cohort show that 1 in 3 companies are using AI technology in their product or service development.

When looking at sectors, healthtech, cleantech and marketing tech came second as top areas of focus for this year’s Regional Winners. Additionally, 45% of companies include at least one female founder and almost 20% include a founder from a ethnic minority.

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The Regional Winners are progressing to the Semi Finals in February where the competition will culminate with a showcase of the top 10 National Winners in March.

Supporting early stage tech companies to succeed is at the heart of Rising Stars – a Tech Nation competition programme specifically designed to not only showcase the most exciting innovative business on a regional level across the UK, but also to provide them with tailored support, opportunities, network, and access to coaching and masterclasses to help take their business to the next level.

Previous regional and national winners of the competition include uFurnish, SeedLegals, Elemental, People Matter, Tickr, and Vitaccess.

Scottish Winners

Danu Robotics

Currently developing a intelligent robotic waste sorting and mining system that is sustainable, affordable, flexible, scalable and future proof. It can be used by any recycling facility worldwide regardless of its size, its current technology or location.

Xiaoyan Ma, founder- “We are absolutely thrilled to be one of the regional Rising Stars winners. Being selected as one of the regional winners will help us to promote our brand, our product idea and our value to a much wider audience.”

MyCustomerLens

The always-on client intelligence platform for professional services firms.

Paul Roberts, co-founder- “The Rising Stars competition showcases the most innovative and exciting startups across the UK, and we are delighted to be amongst them as a Regional Winner from Scotland.

SENSEcity

Based in Glasgow, this studio specialises in the development of Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) experiences for the cultural heritage and tourism sectors.

Pooja Katara, founder- “We are proud and honoured to be recognised as a Rising Stars 5.0 Regional Winner. This has been pivotal for previous winners and we are so excited for SENSEcity’s and Historiscope’s journey ahead. Our core ethos is to empower heritage and cultural sites with immersive technological tools so they can offer meaningful storytelling experiences to stay relevant.

“This opportunity will enable us to meet the right partners, public bodies and investors as we grow to become a trusted brand in the travel tech space. The Tech Nation community has been very encouraging and with this win, we are ready to take full advantage of the support to follow.”

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