London crucial for Scotland’s startups - EIE London set for late November

Links with London are seen as increasingly important to Scotland’s startup community with 85 per cent of respondents saying that closer ties are required in a survey carried out by Young Company Finance for Informatics Ventures. Along these lines, November sees the second edition of EIE London – bringing the best early stage Scottish Technology companies to investors in London – on November 27^th.

On November 5^th, entries opened for EIE15 next May at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, the 8^th edition of the largest investor event of its kind in Scotland. It follows the most successful Engage Invest Exploit (EIE) event to date when over 200 investors from Scotland, the UK, Europe, Asia and the Americas attended EIE14 at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh in May to meet and be pitched to by 60 of Scotland’s leading early stage companies from the Tech, Life Sciences and Energy sectors.

The only showcase of its kind to bring Scottish startups and university spin-outs in front of investors from around the world, EIE has now been a springboard to over £40m of investment in early stage Scottish companies since the inaugural event in 2008. Illustrating the importance of Informatics Ventures’ activities to the startup ecosystem in Scotland, three EIE alumni companies have gained further funding since this year’s event. ZoneFox, Mallzee and UWI Technology, all EIE alumni companies, have received significant funding over the last few weeks.

Gordon Stuart of Informatics Ventures said: “It’s encouraging to see how EIE has developed since its inception and how this has run alongside the growth of Scotland as a bona fide startup nation. However, we can’t rest on our laurels and the hard work continues to help promote our best young early stage companies to investors throughout the world.”

Scottish Enterprise (SE) is once again a partner in this event. Having invested £32.4m into Scottish growth SMEs through its investment arm the Scottish Investment Bank last year, as well as providing intensive support to the management teams, SE is looking forward to showcasing Scotland’s best growth prospects to the London investor community.

Kerry Sharp, Head of the Scottish Investment Bank, commented: "The London event provides two tremendous opportunities – firstly a valuable platform for the ambitious companies pitching, but more widely it increases our links with investors from London and beyond, which is really important in attracting international capital to Scotland.“