Fintech leaders among key speakers for scottish scale-up event

Leaders behind innovative fintech businesses will be among the speakers at this year’s Invest2Scale 2023 being held in Edinburgh.  They include Thomas Gillan, CEO of Edinburgh-based payment orchestration provider BR-DGE and Mohsin Rashid, CEO and co-founder of consumer-facing fintech ZipZero. In June, the company moved its headquarters from London to Aberdeen’s ONE Tech Hub.

Callum Murray, the founder and CEO of Amiqus Resolution will also take part in the event as a contributor during a fintech panel discussion.

They will join keynote speaker Shane Corstorphine, the founder of Scaling Up Consulting and a former senior executive at Skyscanner, at the Invest2Scale event on 31 October.

Shane set up his consultancy business, which provides coaching for CEOs of rapidly scaling businesses, in 2019 after exiting from Scottish-founded unicorn company Skyscanner where he served as both CFO and Senior VP of Growth. He was an integral part of the tech company’s C-suite team that saw it scale from around 75 people to more than 1,500. Shane is also a non-Executive director for the market-leading Forge Holiday Group and for Glasgow-based healthcare scale-up, Simple Online Pharmacy.

The 2023 Invest2Scale event, which supports scalable Scottish companies with high growth prospects, will be chaired by Michael Moore. A former Scottish Secretary who served in the 2010 Coalition Government, Michael is now Chief Executive of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.

Other speakers at Invest2Scale 2023 include Gemma Hamilton, an investor at BGF, an established and independent fund that has committed over £3.5bn of investment into SMEs across the UK & Ireland; and Carol Thompson, CEO of Glasgow-based BDD Pharma, who has led its growth as an integrated development and clinical trials company.

Also addressing the event will be Mike Reid, founder and Senior Partner of Frog Capital; Mark Boggett, CEO at Seraphim Space, the world’s leading specialist investor in the SpaceTech domain; and Federico Charosky, founder and CEO of Edinburgh-headquartered global cyber security services company Quorum Cyber; Craig Johnson, co-founder and Director of Strategic Partnerships at ENOUGH; and Hayley Raeper, People Lead at digital development partners xDesign.

Launched in 2022, Invest2Scale helps revenue-generating scalable Scottish companies which are ready for high-level growth by providing them with direct access to investors and VCs. The event is led by law firm MBM Commercial, accountants and advisers CT, recruitment specialists Eden Scott, and Angel Capital Scotland (formerly LINC Scotland).

Michelle Lownie, CEO of Invest2Scale founder company Eden Scott, who will also be taking part in a panel discussion at this year’s event, said:

“We are delighted to have secured such a strong line-up of speakers for Invest2Scale 2023. Our roster of expert guests all understand and have direct experience within the scale-up community and will bring huge value to this event by sharing their stories and offering supportive insights for companies that are on the verge of global growth.”

Further information on Invest2Scale 2023 can be found at: www.invest2scale.com

AccelerateHER Awards 2023 target ”˜force for good’ female Fintech founders

Female founders can once again raise their company’s profile and benefit from a significant business growth support package by entering this year’s AccelerateHER Awards.

The 2023 programme has now opened for applications from women behind companies focused on being a force for good’, with four new entry categories. The first of these,   Technology, is open to women behind innovative fintech businesses. The other categories are  Health; Environment; and Culture. There’s also a Rising Star’ award for the female founder with the best early-stage business idea.

Winners will be selected for each category at the awards final event being held at the new Barclays campus in Glasgow on 16^th March.

The AccelerateHER Awards, now in their eighth year, provide a springboard to growth for participants by opening doors to new opportunities and market-building connections through the organisation’s global network. The awards are backed by the Scottish Government and open to women who are founders or co-founders of companies which are Scottish-based or actively trading in Scotland. Winners will benefit from a prize package that is potentially worth thousands of pounds and includes a six-month mentoring programme from Investing Women Angels, Scotland’s first all-female business angel group.

Former awards participants have also secured places on AccelerateHER trade missions to Europe, North America and the Middle East, to showcase their business to industry contacts and global investors. This includes three of last year’s winners who will attend next month’s mission to California, connecting with money-can’t-buy network-building opportunities and investors from a range of global industries. More than 5,500 female founders have joined the AccelerateHER community to date.

Last year’s Scotland-based AccelerateHER Award winners were Ishani Malhotra, founder and CEO of cancer treatment pioneers Carcinotech; Lynne Darcey Quigley, founder and CEO of fintech innovators Know-it Global; Xiaoyan Ma, CEO of Danu Robotics, a company focused on addressing the global waste challenge; and Danae Shell, CEO of Valla, a DIY law platform which helps resolve employment issues.

To apply for the 2023 AccelerateHER Awards, entrants will complete a short application form, which includes a description of how their business is a force for good, and submit a brief video pitch outlining their business, its ambitions, growth plans and international potential. More details can be found at: www.accelerateher.co.uk/awards2023

Deadline for entries is Friday, 9^th December 2022. Shortlisted companies will be announced in early January 2023.

Launching this year’s awards programme, AccelerateHER CEO Elizabeth Pirrie said:

 

“Over the last seven years, the AccelerateHER Awards has helped inspire and support hundreds of female-led companies, including those behind
fintechs, from across Scotland and beyond. It provides an ideal platform that enables aspirational women to connect with our global network of angel investors, commercial advisers and other successful business people. The financial impact has also been significant, with the companies involved in the AccelerateHER programme securing more than £45 million in external investment.

“I would encourage women behind growth-focused companies that aim to be a force for good to come forward and apply.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney MSP said:

 

“The AccelerateHER Awards are a fantastic way of recognising and celebrating the achievements and contributions of women in Scotland’s entrepreneurial landscape.

“The Scottish Government is working to identify and support additional ways to unlock the full potential of Scotland’s entrepreneurs and at the same time address the existing entrepreneurial gender gap. Gender equality in business is essential for Scotland to achieve its vision of becoming the most entrepreneurial and innovative society in the world.”

New event connects global investors with Scottish scale-ups

A new business event aimed at helping scalable Scottish companies reach their full potential has been launched today. Invest2Scale, being staged on 2 November at Edinburgh’s Dovecot Studios, is aiming to address a gap in the market by supporting revenue-generating scalable Scottish companies by connecting them with VCs and other investors.

Invest2Scale will identify between 10-12 company founders who they will invite to participate in their new showcase event.  The event programme will include networking sessions, industry discussions and other scale–up focused activities and involve an audience of senior figures from both the UK and global investment community.   

Invest2Scale is being led by a group of leading business support organisations – law firm MBM Commercial, accountants Chiene + Tait, recruitment specialists Eden Scott, and Angel Capital Scotland (formerly Linc Scotland) – who are tapping into their networks to attract scale–up experts and other key figures from the investor community to the event.

Companies with a global focus and strong scale up potential are being invited to apply to be part of the Invest2Scale event. More details can be found at: www.invest2scale.com  

 Selected companies will be announced in October. 

Stuart Hendry, Senior Partner at MBM Commercial said:

“Invest2Scale addresses a gap in the market by targeting revenue-generating companies with significant scalability.  It does this in person as there is major value in bringing company founders and investors together in the same venue as opposed to attempting this interaction through online facility. This event is designed to enable strong businesses to progress to a higher level and to lay the foundations in creating the next Scottish unicorn.   

“We are passionate about supporting scale–up businesses to help them make the most of global investment opportunities so they can reach their full potential.” 

Alan Donald of Angel Capital Scotland said:

“Our partnership of highly regarded and well-connected corporate organisations, where we can access key figures within the global investment community through our networks, brings immense value to this event. Collectively we will also leverage our experience and close relationships within Scotland’s business community to help identify many of the companies that could maximise the impact of additional growth investment.

“In addition to the contribution of the founding partners, through Invest2Scale we will put ambitious high growth Scottish companies with scale–up funding aspirations in front of an invited audience of investors.”