Institute of Directors Awards
The Institute of Directors’ Scottish Awards night proved a night of successes for Scottish EDGE alumni. The first of two successes went to Mhairi MacLeod and Alice Will, founders of LUX Illuminating Brands — winners in Round 1 of the Young EDGE competition — won the IoD Scotland Regional Emerging Directors award.
Next up was Magnus Houston, founder of Coast & Glen who won the prestigious IoD Scotland National Emerging Director Award. Coast & Glen — who produce FISHBOX, a seafood subscription service — received £50,000 in Round 7 of the Scottish EDGE competition.
Awards
There were plenty of awards won by EDGE alumni beyond the IoD Scotland Awards. Beer subscription service, Beer52.com (Round 6 winners) won the UK’s Best Independent Craft Beer Retailer award, Appointedd (Round 1 winners) won the Investing Women AccelerateHER pitching competition, and Turtle Pack (Young Edge Round 4 winners) won the annual Watt Ventures pitching competition. Congratulations to all!
Nominations
This month, the fashion app Mallzee (Round 2 winners) and their founder and CEO, Cally Russell, were nominated for four awards at the Scottish Digital Awards, due to be held in late April. They’ve been nominated in the ‘Best B2C Technology Product,’ ‘Investment Deal of the Year,’ ‘CEO of the Year,’ and ‘ Small Digital Technology Business of the Year’ categories. Good luck!
We’re also delighted to hear that Michael Harkins, founder of Turtle Pack —Young Edge Round 4 winners — has been nominated in the ‘Enterprise’ category at the Sunday Mail Young Scot Awards 2016, due to be held in late April. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed!
Other News
Equally exciting is the non-award related news our alumni have to share, in particular, that of Shot Scope, snap40, and the Wee Tea Plantation.
Shot Scope (Round 6 winners), producers of a new golf performance tracking system, sold out of their highly anticipated pre-orders earlier in March. Reservations are now being taken for general sales later this Spring, and the company will also be seeking investment at Informatics Ventures’ upcoming Engage Invest Exploit 2016 event, as detailed in The Scotsman.
snap40 (Rounds 5 & 7 alumni) have won an SBRI Healthcare Development Contract, becoming one of only two companies in Scotland to have ever been awarded a contract through SBRI, which is part of NHS England. The contract will see the company implement their solution in an emergency department, enabling the company to demonstrate its benefits to patients, healthcare staff and health service.
Finally, the Wee Tea Plantation found themselves in the thick of things this month with multiple stories in the press. Not only were they visited by Deputy First Minister John Swinney, as reported in the Dunfermline Press, but they also completed building work on their factory, as covered by The Courier. The factory, which is reported to be the first tea factory in Scotland, was converted in part using £50,000 won by the company as part of Round 6.
That’s it for this month but you can always stay up to date with the latest news from the Scottish EDGE and our alumni by following us on Twitter or by subscribing to our newsletter.
