Informatics Ventures urges start-ups to Aim higher
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Informatics Ventures is to hold its second Aim summit in Edinburgh on Tuesday, in partnership with the London Stock Exchange, Royal Bank of Scotland, start-up recruitment hub TalentSpark, law firm Pinsent Masons and accountant Grant Thornton.
The event, at Edinburgh’s Roxburghe Hotel, will feature keynote speeches from Keith Brown, cabinet secretary for the economy, jobs and fair work, along with Bob Keiller, the former chief executive of energy services giant Wood Group who now chairs Scottish Enterprise.
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Hide AdKeiller said: “Informatics Ventures, London Stock Exchange and partners should be applauded for organising this kind of event. Scotland has some great success stories on both Aim and the main markets, but we need more. Understanding and demystifying the process of becoming publicly listed will help to encourage those whose growth ambition can be helped by going public.”
Since launching in 1995, almost 4,000 companies have joined Aim, raising close to £100 billion between them. Scottish firms quoted on London’s junior market include Edinburgh-based healthcare software specialist Craneware, five-a-side football pitch operator Goals Soccer Centres, based in East Kilbride, and Glasgow-headquartered web hosting group Iomart, whose finance chief Richard Logan will also be speaking at the summit on 20 September.
Informatics Ventures is also gearing up to open applications on 1 October for next year’s EIE start-up investment conference, which is being held for the first time at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, having previously been hosted by the city’s Assembly Rooms.
Next month will also see the organisation team up with Scottish Enterprise and other partners to take ten companies to Hong Kong and Shenzhen in China, building on the “significant” Chinese investor attendance at this year’s EIE event, where MindMate, a Glasgow start-up that develops apps to help people affected with dementia live more independent lives, emerged as the winning pitch.
Steve Ewing, director of operations at Informatics Ventures, said: “Scottish tech is at its zenith, although it’s so important that we keep pushing on and getting our most exciting early-stage companies in front of the investors and partners that can help take us to the next level.
“While we all know the good news stories around companies like FanDuel and Mallzee, it’s encouraging to see the next generation of tech companies in Scotland, start-ups like Two Big Ears and MindMate, coming through the system and going on to great things and collectively a great advert for Scottish tech.”