Having invested over £20m into Scottish start-ups over the past nine years, Scottish EDGE has received a funding boost after several EDGE Pledges were recently honoured, totalling more than £125,000.
To ensure its long-term sustainability, the organisation invites previous winners to contribute a minimum of 1% of exit proceeds back into the fund.
A total of 168 pledges are currently active, from former winners dating back to the first round of the competition, including Novosound, Enterobiotix and Ooni Pizza Ovens.
Calum Smeaton, founder of viewing measurement platform TV Squared, was one of the first founders to sign the pledge at its inception in 2017, and together with Kevin Dorren and Andrew Veitch - both investors in TV Squared - donated a combined total of £110,000.
Meanwhile, £11,500 was committed by Brian Woods, whose former company was successful in the second round of the Scottish EDGE awards, and who is now the founder of Cane & Grain International.
A further pledge of £4,400 was honoured by David Kellock, who was amongst the founding directors of travel accessory company Trtl, recognised in both the second round of the EDGE awards and the fifth round of the Young EDGE category.
Smeaton said: “The prize enabled us to accelerate investment in our commercial team and fund a much-needed global market research trip that confirmed our assessment on the global market opportunity we had for our product.
“We will forever be grateful for the EDGE Awards and how they helped in the journey from an idea on a white board to an exit 10 years later.”
Alongside contributions pledged by previous winners, Scottish EDGE recently introduced an investors’ pledge, which has now been signed by Andrew Coleman, who has previously invested in various EDGE winners including Enterobiotix, Lentitek and BioLiberty.
“EDGE is a unique asset whose preservation has much to contribute to Scotland’s thriving business and economy,“ he commented. “Not only does it present a wealth of networks, knowledge and opportunities, but its benefits are manifold not only for founders but for their early backers as well.“
Evelyn McDonald, chief executive of Scottish EDGE, added: “One of the bedrock principles of the Scottish EDGE fund is to encourage recipients to give back to the fund, so that the entrepreneurs of the future can continue to benefit.
“We are thrilled that several generous pledges have recently been honoured, which will enable more businesses to continue the positive cycle of creativity and innovation that we have been proudly championing for almost a decade”.
Supported by The Hunter Foundation, the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise, the 20th round of the awards saw a further 42 innovative businesses benefit to the tune of £1.6m.
The current round of Scottish EDGE opened on 24 January and applications for funding will be accepted via the online portal until 14 February.
Businesses in Scotland across all sectors, from pre-trading to up to five years trading, are invited to enter, with the winners set to receive a share of a £1m prize pot, along with access to a network of industry experts and support opportunities.
The Scottish EDGE suite awards now consist of the core Scottish EDGE, Social Enterprise EDGE (supported by Postcode Innovation Trust) and Scottish Enterprise supported Young EDGE categories, as well as the specialist category awards: Net Zero EDGE (supported by Royal Bank of Scotland), Circular Economy EDGE (supported by Zero Waste Scotland), STV Growth EDGE (supported by STV), Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre EDGE (supported by IBioIC) and Creative EDGE.
Due to a reduction in funding support, the Wild Card EDGE category will not be running in the current round. However, pre-trading businesses can still apply for the Scottish EDGE or Young EDGE category where eligibility requirements are met.
The awards ceremony will be held on 25 May.
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