Rising Stars
A number of our alumni featured in the Daily Record’s special ‘Rising Stars 2016’ feature earlier in April. In
particular, the teams at Cheeky Chompers, Appointedd, FINDRA, Trtl Pillow and Flavourly came out on top. In the piece, they were also kind enough to name drop the Scottish EDGE a few times, discussing how they’ve beneffited from our support and the rest
of Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Thanks guys and congratulations!
Major New Contracts
April was especially successful for two of our alumni businesses, winning major new distribution and public sector contracts. First up were MindMate – Young EDGE Round 4 winners – who secured the NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde as their first paying
customer. As detailed in The Herald, the deal will see MindMate’s dementia support application
installed on sixty iPads for use within the trust’s care homes, support groups, and day-care centres, and comes after a two month trial.
Next up were Freedom Brands – Scottish EDGE Round 1 winners and producers of the Go Coco drink – who signed a major distribution agreement with the Highland Spring Group this month. The agreement is expected to see the brand grow substantially through
increased supermarket presence in the months ahead.
Awards
As always, there were plenty of fantastic awards given to Scottish EDGE alumni during April. So, in no particular order…
Congratulations to Mallzee who won the ‘Best B2C Technology Product/Service’ and ‘Small Digital Technology Business of the Year’ awards at the ScotlandIS awards. It’s great to see Mallzee’s mobile fashion application – which won Scottish EDGE funding
in Round 2 – continue to grow and win accolades along the way.
Next up were nooQ, whose visual communication platform was backed by the Scottish EDGE in Round 5. For the second year running, the team won the ‘Cool Tool’ and ‘Coolest Feature’ awards at the Social Now event in Lisbon, an event which showcases the best
processes and tools to improve knowledge sharing, communication and collaboration inside enterprises. Well done guys!
Round 3 winners JustBe Botanicals won the Editor’s Choice Award at the Beauty Shortlist Awards 2016 for their JustBe Eye Makeup Remover product. This is the third award the company has received for this product, having previously won at the Beauty Bible
Awards and Freeform Skincare Awards 2015. Nice one!
Finally, congratulations to Epipole – our highest ever award winner having won £150,000 in the inaugural Higgs EDGE competition – who received an academic prize at a recent Scottish Ophthalmology meeting for research relating to their epicam product.
We can’t wait to see the impact that epicam has in the healthcare sector.
ASDA’s Social Enterprise Supplier Development Academy
Our final piece of ‘Good News’ this month is from Studio 2080, the company behind Power a Life and Wild Card EDGE Round 1 winners. They’ve been selected to participate in the first ever ASDA Social Enterprise Supplier Development Academy to be held
in Scotland, alongside eleven other social enterprises. Full details of the programme and benefits to Studio 2080 can be found on the Social Investment Scotland website.
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.
