Scotland deep tech incubator secures £58m to stem talent drain
A state-backed Scottish programme is turning academic AI and quantum research into scalable businesses to stop the country's best innovations being absorbed by larger tech hubs.
The University of Edinburgh, the Scottish government’s Techscaler programme, and growth platform CodeBase have scaled a five-month incubator to turn academic deep tech research into scalable businesses. Since 2021, the Venture Builder Incubator has supported 164 founders who have collectively raised £58 million in grants and investments.
Scotland hosts two of the UK’s five quantum hubs and boasts a strong AI research corridor between Edinburgh and Glasgow. However, turning that academic strength into commercial success has historically meant losing talent to bigger markets. "We need to start pulling the bigger players into the Scottish market rather than exporting all of our talent and ideas outwards," said Andrew Parfery, SVP Commercial & University Lead at CodeBase.
The primary obstacle for researchers is a lack of commercial experience. "The biggest barrier to commercialisation from a university setting is the lack of commercial skills and experience required to do so," Parfery said. Founders like Shivoh Nandakumar of Ridescan AI and Eva Steele of AI biotech Amytis had to abandon their academic bubbles to meet unpredictable market demands.
The programme addresses this gap by focusing on sales, pitching, and investor literacy. "Every great founder is a brilliant salesperson because they have to sell not just to their customers but investors, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders as well," Parfery added. The incubator also actively corrects unrealistic funding expectations from academics.
"If a founder turns up and says they want to raise £20k for 20% at pre-seed, we’ll immediately put the brakes on that," he said. For the startups involved, the network provides immediate commercial pathways. Steele secured match funding from Bethnal Green Ventures through a Techscaler newsletter to unlock a Smart Scotland grant.
"It enabled us to carry on doing what we were doing," Steele said. Nandakumar used the programme to connect with the University of Edinburgh's venture arm, noting that "you need a new bubble, and you can’t get that in academia." Techscaler also organises international trips to Singapore, Silicon Valley, New York, China and Japan to connect founders with global markets.
