RISING STARS


Jonathan Harris, Editor, Young Company Finance Scotland, picks out the spin-outs and start-ups tipped for a great future


tOneso watch


In the 12 years that we have been producing our monthly publication, Young Company Finance (YCF), we have written about hundreds of early-stage companies in Scotland.


The University of Edinburgh is one of the


UK’s leading institutions for forming new companies. Some are spin-outs, formed to commercialise intellectual property owned by the University. Others are start-ups, formed by University students or recent graduates, and related to the science and technology being researched and developed at the University. More are companies formed by students, which can have nothing to do with their academic studies, but where the student has been encouraged to take the first step towards building a business in an area about which they are enthusiastic. Some have been awarded


SMART:SCOTLAND grants, some have pitched for funding, others have secured it. Some, in particular MTEM, have started “with all their ducks in a row” and commenced trading profitably. We have watched these companies progress to great success. Occasionally, as in the case of VLSI Vision and Wolfson


28


Microelectronics, this is by way of a stock market flotation. More often, this is by way of a trade sale, such as MTEM and Rhetorical Systems. Sometimes, as in the case of VLSI Vision and Voxar, this can result in the establishment of a global centre of excellence in Scotland. It has been fun, trying to understand the technology and explain it to lay readers (not always something that entrepreneurs are good at). A particular pleasure, however, is to see young companies find their commercial feet, and discover what it takes to impress customers and potential investors. Sometimes this knowledge is


companies find their commercial feet, and discover what it takes to impress”


“A pleasure is to see young


hard won. No matter how many times advisers and investors tell presenters who are pitching for funds that the world is more interested in who you will sell to (and why they will buy) rather than how the technology works, it can take a long time for this message to be fully absorbed. This point has been repeatedly emphasised to me by business angels in the LINC Scotland network, with whom YCF commenced a licensing partnership in February this year.


Those ventures of particular interest have significant growth prospects, usually meaning that they are scalable (one extra unit can be sold without much additional cost). They are all, however, indications of a broad culture of enterprise at the University.


Of the current crop of new enterprises, there are several that are well worth watching and here are five examples I have selected that stand out. In case this article is read by anyone from the Financial Services Authority, I should point out that neither I nor YCF are in any way authorised or competent to make recommendations for investment in any of the companies selected.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40