A TECH accelerator whose mission as the first of its type in Scotland is to trigger the country’s next billion-dollar start-up has launched in Edinburgh with a stellar line-up of investment partners.
Seed Haus, aims to fill a gap in start-up support by providing pre-seed investment to founders, office space in their architecturally designed incubator, mentoring, infrastructure and space to flourish.
Its investment partners include some of the country’s biggest entrepreneurs, such as Sir Tom Hunter, video games veteran Chris Van der Kuyl, Brewdog’s James Watt and Paul Davidson, of West Coast Capital.
Since CEO Calum Forsyth and chairman Robin Knox launched the not-for-profit’s inaugural recruitment drive for early-stage start-ups in April, Seed Haus has had more than 165 applications to join its six-month programme – around half of which were international.
Five were ultimately chosen for the programme after a strict recruitment process and will receive £18,000 and office space in Edinburgh: SecurityCTRL, a cybersecurity startup; IoT/wearable company Sansible; on-demand drinks service, Drinkly; family communication platform Kindaba; and Taka, which is developing a therapeutic treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
Seed Haus said the quality of start-ups spoke volumes for the perceived benefits of going through a tech accelerator and the doors it potentially opens.
Encouragingly, it said, two of the five teams are gender balanced. Forsyth, a PhD scientist and former risk consultant with business services group KPMG, said: “The founders represent a highly-talented, diverse group with considerable experience and achievements already under their respective belts.”
Knox added: “We are Scotland’s most selective accelerator and have big ambitions for the companies we support.
“We seek out people with the best ideas at a very early stage – we are not looking for business plans.
“Potential is more important to us than business experience.
“Seed Haus is providing exactly the sort of support needed by early stage start-ups to give them the greatest chance of achieving success and securing the next stage of investment.”
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