The Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC) has partnered with Murphy Wealth to address an increasing funding gap for Scottish early stage tech start-ups.
Paul Wilson, chief executive of Scotland’s first Internet of Things (IoT) accelerator, said: “From the outset, STAC has been strongly supported by the Scottish investment community, but we have to recognise that the successful evolution of Scotland’s angel syndicates, who are now investing more frequently in scale-up companies than seeding start-ups, means there is void in access to capital for early stage companies.
“So, we are working to plug the gap.
“The upside of Scotland’s multi-decades of small business generation is the creation of a strong talent pool of experienced entrepreneurs who have exited their ventures and want to support the next generation of founders, and the Murphy tie-up gives us access to a large community of these entrepreneurs.”
The wealth manager's chief executive Adrian Murphy said: “In common with our own firm, we support entrepreneurs, albeit at a different stage of the entrepreneurial journey, and we share a strong belief in how transformational entrepreneurs and fast-growth tech companies can be to the wider economy.
“We also share STAC’s ambition to create world-beating companies from a base in Scotland, and are pleased to be strengthening our relationship with STAC to help make this happen.”
In partnership with Murphy, STAC will launch STAC Invest, an online platform showcasing Scotland’s high potential IoT and smart devices startups to local and international investors.
In January, STAC launched a new IoT recruitment platform, STAC Jobs, in partnership with Jordan Talent Solutions, aimed at improving recruitment and retention in the growing industry.
Wilson said: “The IoT and smart device market in Scotland is heating up, we’ve seen merger and acquisition activity with companies like Pelion, Sonos and Current Health, while Waire, IOpt, Krucial, Kingdom Technologies and Beringar are among next wave of sector players building investment and market momentum.”
STAC will be accepting applications for its third cohort of companies on 1 March.
Currently, the accelerator is supporting 23 companies with 70 employees from its base at Skypark in Glasgow, with a new 250-desk facility and fully equipped labs planned for the second quarter of this year.
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