News EDGE9

During a high energy day, twenty-one of Scotland’s most promising entrepreneurs pitched their businesses to an expert panel of judges in order to win up to £100,000 each in grant funding and loans. The panel of judges, which was chaired by Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne of Genius Gluten-Free, chose fourteen of the businesses as winners on the day. Also announced were winners of Higgs EDGE, which seeks to identify innovative science and technology businesses with global commercialisation potential, Young EDGE, for entrepreneurs under the age of 30, and Wild Card EDGE for businesses who have yet to commence trading.

Last week, in our penultimate Scottish EDGE Round Nine final, two innovative Scottish start-up businesses won the competition’s award for science, technology and engineering-focused businesses – Higgs EDGE. From a shortlisted group of four high-standard finalists, Exnics and RD Support were selected as winners, each of whom pitched to a panel of industry expert judges in an attempt to win Scottish EDGE’s top prizes of £150,000 and £100,000. The companies will find out who is the lucky winner of our top award at the Scottish EDGE Round Nine final on December 15th, 2016.

After a fortnight of impressive social media vote canvassing, we are thrilled to announce the winner of our Round Nine Wild Card EDGE Public Vote.Following the Wild Card EDGE final, three of the winning businesses – Nu Blvck, Spark and Rocket and Spey Cardio – were shortlisted, by the expert panel of judges, to take part in an online public vote to win the chance to pitch for additional funding of up to £100,000. It was a close race throughout, but having received 44% of the 1,168 unique votes cast, it is with great pleasure that we declare Nu Blvck as our Wild Card EDGE Public Vote winner!

In what has been a hugely competitive round of finals and semi-finals, it was the turn this week of twenty-one young entrepreneurs to pitch to a panel of expert judges in the round nine Young EDGE final. In keeping with our Wild Card EDGE finalists and Scottish EDGE semi-finalists, the standard of pitching was exceptionally high and made the task of selecting the winners especially difficult for our panel.

VOTE NOW CLOSED

Back by popular demand – the Wild Card EDGE Public Vote! Following the success of last round’s vote, which saw winners, Blusho, go on to secure funding of £30,000 in the Scottish EDGE final, it is with great excitement that we announce the three Scottish businesses competing for your vote in Round Nine of the competition.  Nu Blvck, Spark and Rocket and SpeyCardio now have until Wed, 23rd Nov, 2016 to convince the public that their product or service has that winning EDGE – deserving of additional funding and support. The business with the highest number of unique votes will be given the opportunity to pitch for up to £100,000 in grant and loan funding at the Scottish EDGE final on Dec 15th, 2016.

After a highly competitive Scottish EDGE round nine semi-final – spread over three days and featuring fifty-five great Scottish start-ups – a collective panel of fifteen expert judges have selected nineteen Scottish businesses to pitch in front of a panel of industry-leading professionals, for up to £100,000 of Scottish EDGE funding and support. Taking place on Thursday, Dec 15th, 2016 at the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Gogarburn Conference Centre (get your free ticket here), the Scottish EDGE round nine final will showcase Scotland’s most innovative, high-growth potential start-up businesses, with a prize pot of over £1 million available to boost Scotland’s economy by supporting the country’s small businesses.

Last week, 22 Scottish start-up businesses took a walk on the Wild (Card EDGE) Side, in what an expert panel of judges deemed to be an exceptionally high standard final. Of the 22 finalists, 12 successfully pitched their way to a winning position – securing grant funding of up to £10,000. It is with great pleasure, therefore, that we can today reveal the winners of the Scottish EDGE Round 9 Wild Card EDGE competition. The actual amount won by each business, however, will not be disclosed until the Scottish EDGE final, to be held at the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Gogarburn campus on Thursday, 15th December (get your free tickets here).

Are you considering applying for Scottish EDGE Round 9? Then come along to one of our workshops to find out what makes a strong Scottish EDGE application, what the judging panel look for when assessing your application and how to deliver a 3-minute video presentation.  The workshops are delivered by experts from the entrepreneurial eco-system and the Scottish EDGE team and could be the first step in your Scottish EDGE journey to winning £150,000.

Deputy First Minister, John Swinney today took the opportunity to announce a further £1.5 million in grant funding to support Rounds 8 and 9 of Scottish EDGE, in The Big Interview in the March edition of Business Insider magazine.