🧬 Dxcover raise, Clyde Hydrogen partnership, Techscaler report
Plus news from Valla, a Tricapital Angels report, and so many events!
Here's your Campfire for the 10th of February, 2025.
💼 Johnston Carmichael are a leading accountancy and business advisory firm, with offices throughout Scotland, in Newcastle and London. A partner owned firm for over 85 years, they have grown to offer core and specialist services to business of all sizes. With specialist sector teams, they are fast becoming one of the most trusted advisers for entrepreneurs, founders and businesses that are successfully scaling. Talk to the team today to discuss what growth stage your business is at.
🌊 Updates
💸 Glasgow-based Dxcover (early cancer detection tech) raised $6.2M in its latest funding round, bringing its total to $21.4M since spinning out from the University of Strathclyde in 2019. Led by Eos Advisory, the round included SIS Ventures, University of Strathclyde, Norcliffe Capital, and new investors Maven Capital Partners and Macmillan Cancer Support. IN
💰 Tricapital Angels released their annual report. They invested £3.5m across 18 deals last year, which raised “nearly £30m in total funding and supporting 500+ jobs in AI, biotech, and renewable energy: Notable investments include Aberdeen-based HonuWorx’s autonomous submarines, H2CHP’s clean energy tech, and Isle of Skye-based Kaly Group’s seaweed farming expansion. TS
📈 According tp Techscaler’s second annual report, startups in the programme raised £66 million in 2024, up 27% from last year, bringing the two-year total to £118 million. The number of enrolled companies nearly doubled to 978, with 1,411 entrepreneurs engaging. The program, run by CodeBase, supports sectors like medtech, AI, and space and last year experimented with pop-up hubs in Singapore and San Francisco. FS SFN DGT
🤝 Clyde Hydrogen Systems has partnered with PlusZero to test its high-pressure green hydrogen electrolyser outside the lab for the first time. PlusZero is developing a green hydrogen facility in Stornoway, launching October 2025. The project will combine hydrogen production, training, and research. As part of the deal, PlusZero will host and operate Clyde Hydrogen’s commercial demonstrator for at least six months. DGT
🥇 Danae Shell, founder of Edinburgh-based startup Valla (AI legaltech platform focusing on employment law for workers), has won a Women in Innovation Award from Innovate UK. Valla also recently announced it had grown 10x in sales. Congrats Danae! SS
📣 Asks & Offers
🚨Start to Scale by Shepherd and Wedderburn is offering eligible subscribers of Campfire exclusive access to their ‘Start to Scale Hub’ which helps companies create template legal agreements in minutes for free. To learn more and request access click here.
📈 Growth mentoring for businesses with £1m+ rev: Baclays Eagle Labs is offering a new mentoring programme for companies who are at seed/series A, and are growing between 10-20% per year who’ve crossed that milestone. More info here.
👭 Interested in connecting with possible co-founders? Fill in your listing on Cofounder Curious today! Connect with others for possible cofounder matching here.
👷Are you hiring? Send us a blurb and we’ll include it in the next newsletter!
✍️ Want to write something for Campfire? Have an opinion you'd like to share? get in touch!
📅 Events
🌱 10/02, 15:30 🗺️ Dumfries: Seeding Enterprise across our Communities workshop - Dumfries: Two-day course aimed at exploring early stages of starting a business aimed at women and under-represented groups in our communities. MORE INFO
⚡ 10/02, 18:30 🗺️ Online: 5-Day Digital Marketing Challenge: Ready to boost your digital marketing? Join our 5-day digital marketing challenge with MAAI Marketing & Digital! MORE INFO
🚀 11/02, 10:00 🗺️ Online: How Scottish Space Technologies can support the FS Sector in Denmark: Join this webinar and find out how Scottish Space Technologies can support the Finical Services Sector in Denmark. MORE INFO
🛒 11/02, 10:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Go-To-Market Without the Gamble: How to Validate Before You Execute: Learn how to build, and develier against, an effective Go-To-Market strategy. MORE INFO
📍 11/02, 10:00 🗺️ Online: Navigating telecoms investment in Scotland: This session will provide investment advice and insights to start-ups looking to enter the telecoms market or seeking funding to develop their applications for the telecoms market. MORE INFO
🎯 11/02, 12:00 🗺️ Thornhill: Pathways to Potential: Women in Business and Tech: Inspiring women to lead the way in business and technology across Dumfries and Galloway. MORE INFO
✌️ 11/02, 18:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Startup Founders Meetup - February 2025: Tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs and speed networking with other founders, potential cofounders, and investors! MORE INFO
🌐 11/02, 18:30 🗺️ Online: Selling Online series - Reporting & analytics for ecommerce - online event: Learn about selling online as a great way to start, diversify or grow a retail business – and anyone can do it! MORE INFO
🌱 12/02, 09:30 🗺️ Duns: Seeding Enterprise across our Communities workshop - Duns: Two-day course aimed at exploring early stages of starting a business aimed at women and under-represented groups in our communities. MORE INFO
♾️ 12/02, 12:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Neurodiversity Meetup: February: This meetup is for anyone in the tech startup scene who is neurodivergent or interested in learning about neurodiversity. Open to everyone. MORE INFO
💼 12/02, 13:00 🗺️ Eyemouth: Business & Community Networking (Eyemouth): Join us at a town near you for one of our informal networking sessions, open to all! Find out all about SOSE and what we can do for you. MORE INFO
🤔 12/02, 18:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Curio 02: Our second evening of inspiring talks based around our core theme of curiosity and creative thinking. MORE INFO
💰 13/02, 10:00 🗺️ Online: Selling Your Business Masterclass: Do you have a business succession plan? Join our free webinar to learn about selling your business to an employee ownership trust. MORE INFO
💼 13/02, 10:00 🗺️ Online: Online Office Hours with Potter Clarkson: Our Office Hours are a series of one-to-one sessions with various experts from the legal and accounting sectors to support tech startup founders on their journey. In this one, participants will be able to engage directly with and receive personalised advice from IP Attornies for Potter Clarkson. MORE INFO
👨💼 13/02, 10:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Professionals Quarterly Networking - Thurs 13th Feb: We wanted to bring together our local professional network, here in Edinburgh, as a way of introducing them to each other. MORE INFO
🥞 13/02, 11:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: BRUNCH CLUB: Join us for BRUNCH CLUB, a coworking day hosted by SWURF, designed for professionals looking to break free from the usual confines of home and office. MORE INFO
🔗 13/02, 17:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Blockchain Scotland Meetup: Welcome to the Monthly Blockchain Scotland Meetup at the Bayes Centre in Edinburgh. The event takes place at the ground floor in G.03. MORE INFO
🍺 13/02, 18:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh - Small99's People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup: Pop down to your local People Planet Pint meetup to find more about what's going on locally with sustainability and how you can get involved. MORE INFO
🎯 14/02, 10:00 🗺️ Online: Online Office Hours with Digital Dairy Chain: Michael Christian: This event is open to anyone in the Scottish tech community, whether you’re a founder, aspiring entrepreneur, or simply curious about the industry. MORE INFO
🌎 18/02, 10:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Globally Connecting Conference: The Globally Connecting Scotland conference is a premier gathering designed to inspire, connect, and empower senior executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers. With a philosophy rooted in the values of the Scottish Business Network, the event will focus on leadership, innovation, international collaboration, and climate action, alongside additional dynamic activities to foster networking and collaboration. MORE INFO
🚀 18/02, 10:00 🗺️ TBA: Marketing Bootcamp for service-based businesses: Want to solve your Marketing headaches? Reach a bigger audience, create a bigger impact? This FREE Marketing Bootcamp is for you! MORE INFO
💰 18/02, 10:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Investor Ready Workshop: Scaling innovative businesses through investment: Join Potter Clarkson and Thorntons for this in-person workshop to get investor ready at Barclays Eagle Labs Glasgow. MORE INFO
♀ 18/02, 18:30 🗺️ Online: Women in Business - Online Programme: A 5-week pre-start and early-stage online business programme for women. MORE INFO
💼 19/02, 10:00 🗺️ Wigtown: Business & Community Networking (Wigtown): Join us at a town near you for one of our informal networking sessions, open to all! Find out all about SOSE and what we can do for you. MORE INFO
🦾 19/02, 17:00 🗺️ Online: AI for Marketing 101: This online event is designed for tech startup founders, co-founders, or small teams aiming to kickstart their marketing efforts or explore how to embed AI into their current marketing processes to support a lean approach. MORE INFO
🌐 19/02, 17:00 🗺️ Aberdeen: From Aberdeen to the World:Raising $65m+, Scaling Globally & Exiting- Chris Herd: Startup Grind Aberdeen is excited to welcome Chris Herd, one of Aberdeen’s most successful entrepreneurs, for an exclusive fireside chat. Chris will share his inspiring journey of building a global business, raising over $65 million in funding, scaling internationally, and successfully exiting to pursue new ventures. MORE INFO
🥼 20/02, 10:00 🗺️ Alloa: MedTech Expo: Accelerating MedTech Innovations and Investments: This event will bring together a diverse range of professionals, companies, researchers, innovators, and both new and established tech-led businesses from the Medtech sector. Attendees will include key players in medical device manufacturing, healthcare technology, digital health solutions, and biotech. MORE INFO
💼 20/02, 10:00 🗺️ Online: Online Office Hours with HubSpot for Startups: Meet with HubSpot for Startups for personalised advice on how HubSpot for Startups can help you! MORE INFO
🎙️ 20/02, 18:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Bits & Bytes Series - Andy McMahon & Mark Wilkinson: Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity to learn and connect with like-minded individuals in our vibrant & growing AI community! MORE INFO
🧠 21/02, 10:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Good Ideas: Catalyst: Catalyst is the perfect way to explore the potential of a new idea for social or environmental change. If you’re an early-stage innovator, in need of a change of direction or just passionate about finding a way to address a cause, Good Ideas: Catalyst is an entry point for you to explore the feasibility of a new idea. MORE INFO
💪 22/02, 10:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Makers gonna make - Episode 5: Our monthly event puts emphasis on building, hacking and tinkering with other like-minded makers, followed by an opportunity to present what you did in a community where we help each other, we value honest feedback and help hold each other accountable. MORE INFO
🥂 25/02, 10:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Co-Work Club Edinburgh: Tired of the home office grind but not ready for the daily commute? Say goodbye to crowded coffee shops and the endless search for a quiet Zoom spot. We've got the solution: Welcome to Co-Work Club @ Kimpton Hotel, Edinburgh. MORE INFO
⚡ 25/02, 10:00 🗺️ TBA: Marketing Bootcamp for product-based businesses: Want to solve your marketing headaches? Reach a bigger audience, create a bigger impact? This marketing bootcamp is for you! MORE INFO
🎯 25/02, 18:00 🗺️ Dundee: Dundee Data Meetup: February 2025: Whether you're a data practitioner, a student, or simply interested in how data shapes our world, come along and be part of our growing community! MORE INFO
🤔 26/02, 10:00 🗺️ Online: Understanding co-ops (online): Learn how becoming a co-op could help your business thrive at this free online workshop hosted by Co-operative Development Scotland. MORE INFO
🤝 26/02, 18:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Entrepreneurs Social Club (ESC) - Edinburgh Startup Meetup: The social club for founders and aspiring entrepreneurs - skip the talks, presentations and lectures - and go straight to networking! MORE INFO
🚀 27/02, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: ITSX Summit 2025 – Edinburgh: The Summit hosts 280+ IT Leaders, 20+ speakers and 15+ exhibitors. The programme will contextualise the evolution of the service desk and the future of customer experience and IT support with live presentations looking at actionable ways to improve process, operations, observability, and customer experience. MORE INFO
📈 27/02, 10:00 🗺️ Hawick: Expand your Ecommerce business via Online Marketplaces - Hawick: Learn how you can take an ecommerce business to the next level by registering for this one day event. MORE INFO
💼 27/02, 10:00 🗺️ Online: Online Office Hours with Lawrie: Managing and Protecting Your IP: Meet with a Director and Patent Attorney from Lawrie for direct, personalised advice on IP! MORE INFO
🎯 27/02, 10:00 🗺️ Aberdeen: Barclays Eagle Labs at One Tech Hub Drop in Clinic Feb 2025: Drop in and let’s have an open discussion about your business goals and ambition and learn more about how your ecosystem manager here at Eagle Labs can support you and your business here at One Tech Hub. MORE INFO
💡 27/02, 18:00 🗺️ Dumfries and Online: Ideation Workshop – Hybrid Event: Got the seed of an idea for a tech startup but want more guidance on what to do next? Got too many ideas to choose from and want to narrow it down? Not got an idea at all, but are interested in how you could find one? Join us for this interactive workshop which will show you how ‘falling in love with the problem’ can set you up to create an amazing tech solution. MORE INFO
🤝 28/02, 09:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founder Friday Coworking: Join us for a day of networking and inspiration! this is your chance to connect with fellow founders, share ideas, and maybe even spark your next big project. MORE INFO
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That’s all for this week - have a great one, and a happy New Year!
Team 🔥 Campfire