Big Ideas

A University of Edinburgh spin-out that turns difficult-to-recycle paper waste into a product that boosts green energy production has secured “milestone” funding as part of an ambitious growth plan.

Tesco is powering ahead with its green energy promise after inking a trio of deals with EDF Renewables that will expand onshore wind capacity in Scotland.

Jonathan Harris of Young Company Finance, which tracks early-stage high-growth enterprises in Scotland, lists the ten biggest deals made within the country during 2019

LP Hartley’s mid-20th century novel, The Go-Between, is now largely forgotten, but its memorable epigraph is readily recalled by so many: “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

Looking at the headline figures on the value of deals done in the first half of this year, it would seem that oil and gas were particularly active, but analysis shows there is more to the investment story in Scotland.

As this year has progressed, the turmoil around Brexit has intensified and made it increasingly difficult to predict the future for all businesses and for investors to pick out the performers most likely to excel.

A Scottish agri-tech business behind ground-breaking “vertical farming” technology has attracted fresh seven-figure funding.

While the value and volume of mergers and acquisitions fell in Scotland in the first half of the year, deals are clearly still being done and finance is coming from a variety of sources.

There is no doubt that Scotland’s farming sector faces unprecedented challenges. But with these threats, be they from Brexit or climate change, comes the opportunity to innovate.

Scotland’s agriculture sector is changing rapidly, with rural businesses across the country driving forward groundbreaking innovations in attempts to address the myriad challenges of the land.

Healthy soil is not only used to grow food, it has a range of other benefits.

Over a century ago, Henry Ford, who revolutionised the automobile business, stated: “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”

Women have always played key roles in farming but it is still chiefly a male-dominated industry, propped up by the expectations of both land inheritance and, in the past, the physical nature of the work.

Provided all the political bluster comes to pass and this country leaves the EU after almost 50 years of being closely aligned to the fortunes of wider European agriculture, farmers in this country will face a largely unknown but probably less profitable future.