Seed Haus celebrates anniversary with new investments

Pre-seed tech accelerator Seed Haus is backing two new start-ups as the Edinburgh incubator celebrates the one-year anniversary of its first tranche of investments.

Calum Forsyth (left) and Robin Knox of Seed Haus. Picture: Contributed

Seed Haus, co-founded by its chief executive Calum Forsyth and chairman Robin Knox, was set up in a bid to plug a gap in the start-up support system. It has been backed by a line-up of high-profile investment partners including Sir Tom Hunter, BrewDog co-founder James Watt and technology entrepreneur Chris van der Kuyl.

It has now backed two new start-ups – gaming platform TopDog and PlayerBase, an e-sports platform. These investments complement Seed Haus’ portfolio which includes start-ups working across cyber-security, robotics, the internet of things, communication, and logistics.

Cumulatively, the portfolio of ten start-ups is said to have made “impressive progress” over the last 12 months. Several have raised funding from both angel and institutional investors allowing them to grow and hire in key roles.

Forsyth said: “It seems like just a few short months ago that Robin and I were out fundraising ahead of the first tranche of investments.

“Pausing and reflecting on the last year, I’m very proud of the progress we’ve all made and I am incredibly grateful to the portfolio founders for allowing us to invest in their companies and accompany them on their respective journeys. We have some very big plans for the next year and look forward to announcing these in the near future.”

Seed Haus said it was shifting towards a rolling intake of founders in contrast to the cohort approach previously employed. This allows the accelerator to deploy capital rapidly and “significantly” decrease the time taken to complete investments.