PwC and CodeBase reveal participants as SCALE: Edinburgh goes live

The companies involved in PwC and CodeBase’s SCALE initiative have been released as the ten-week series of events goes live.

The nine companies and 40-plus executives will spend the next few days meeting to learn more about each other and for the executives to start considering how to help the companies reach the next level.

The companies taking part are:

The executives looking to guide these firms come from a wide background and include Shaf Rasul alongside business executives from the likes of Tesco Bank, the SFA, Schuh, Clydesdale Bank, Edrington, Channel 4, the Scottish Games Network, Waracle, Schuch; Channel 4, Co Op Insurance, the Scottish FA and Quest Corporate.

SCALE aims to provide the missing link between corporates looking to innovate and companies looking to scale by providing access to decision makers and influencers within PwC and other large organisations. SCALE delivers meaningful relationships for scale-ups with C-suite executives and innovation leaders as part of the extended executive network supporting the programme.

Douglas Shand, head of innovation for PwC in Scotland, said: “This showcases the best of Scottish business at all levels. Not only do you have PwC and CodeBase working together with these scale-up companies, you have experts from a wide variety of sectors coming to help the next generation of businesses grow.

“But it’s not a one way relationship. Just as the scale-ups will be learning skills, the mentors and executives will be learning from the scale-ups,discovering how the next generation of Scottish companies operate and if there are any takeaway lessons for them to pick up.

“There has been a fantastic response to this launch programme and I thank everyone who has given up their time to be involved. Given CodeBase’s location and reputation as one of Europe’s top tech incubator hubs, we couldn’t have a better place for the activities.”

Over the ten-week period, participants on the programme will undergo a business development curriculum, receive advice across areas like Tax, R&D, Legal, marketing and PR as well as access to CodeBase’s extended community of experts and the combined professional network.

Jamie Graves, ZoneFox Founder & CEO, said: “The Scottish scale-up sector is doing well but we need more companies in the pipeline. Events like SCALE should help with this. From this series, we hope to gain insights into customer pain in the market and that should let us further enhance our offering as well as new potential customers.”

Alex Ford, VP Operations for Encompass, said: “We continue to be impressed by the caliber of start-ups in Scotland, particularly in the FinTech and RegTech sector where we operate. When it comes to scaling up a further ambitious mindset is required and that is where we see a place for programmes such as SCALE.

“We are in the middle of a high growth phase, bringing on several major legal and financial customers. We thought SCALE would provide us with further relevant and timely opportunities, both nationally and internationally.

“Encompass already works with a number of major blue chip organisations, and moving forward, we wish to work with many more. We therefore hope the PwC network will help us secure more introductions to regulated firms.”

Steve Tigar, CEO of Money Dashboard, said: “Having recently closed a £1.5M crowdfund and with the advent of Open Banking in January 2018, we want to capitalise on the explosive growth opportunities to help us reach our targets of serving 1M customers & generating £25M+ in revenue by 2020. PwC are a great partner to help us connect with world class businesses.”

Andrew Parfery, co-founder and CCO of Care Sourcer, said: “Codebase and PWC have helped us tremendously as a startup, so as we scale across the U.K. we were delighted to be accepted to and supported by PWC Scale.

“As we are signing up care providers, NHS trusts and local authorities at a rapid rate across the U.K as we aim to be the Skyscanner for care, we hope Scale can increase our profile with anyone involved in looking for or providing care.”

Matt Farrugia, CEO of Bemo said: “It’s an exciting time for tech businesses in Scotland, particularly for startups and scale-ups. We are increasingly seeing established companies looking to partner with smaller, up and coming business to help unleash the value-add potential of those businesses in the scottish market and beyond.

“By participating in SCALE we want to develop our proposition to better meet the needs of corporate buyers and gain access into new markets with the opportunity to influence the key decision makers within our target client base.”

Stephen Coleman, CEO of CodeBase, said: “We know how well the Scottish scene is doing at the moment - it’s great to be part of something that empowers companies to navigate potential hurdles and helps them to develop their full potential.”