🙆 Ready for Turing Fest, plus funding for fungi, Exergy3 is hiring, wine from disused fruit and 3d printed rockets
Rhizocore raised for their fungus tech, Skyrora is testing a 3d-printed rocket engine, and meetups from blockchain to greentech. But first, we'll rundown some tips for making the most of Turing Fest.
Here's your Campfire for 26 June 2023.
💼 This issue of Campfire is caffeinated by Shepherd & Wedderburn, the legal firm that's there for you every step of the way.
Making the most of Turing Fest
Turing Fest is this week, and while it's not exclusively a conference for startup founders, it's a good opportunity to connect, learn, and get inspiration. Here are 5 things you can do to make the most of your Turing Fest.
Plan your days: read through all the speakers' profiles and talks, regardless of whether or not you think it's for you. Oftentimes those who deliver amazing value don't always know how to market their own, so talk titles might not tell the whole story.
Take part in the networking: there are speed networking sessions scheduled and yes of course they're silly, but that's the point! It's a great way to get over any anxieties you might have with open networking, as it's light, fun, and quick.
Get on the app and make sure you have networking turned on: If you haven't already, be sure you're on the Brella app. You'll need it for your ticket anyway, but also to connect with other attendees.
Be open to being inspired: conferences are weird things - so much action over a short period of time, it's easy to get wrapped up or feel disconnected. Go into Turing Fest with the intention of being open-minded and absorbing the energy, even if you're not quite sure what to do with it yet.
(shameless plug) Attend the Campfire @ Turing Fest on Wednesday night! Right around the corner from the Turing Fest party, we'll be getting together from 19:30 at The Beehive Inn (right around the corner from the TF drinks event at ColdTown House).
And if you're not attending this year there are plenty of other events happening this week all over Scotland as featured below.
🌊 Updates
🍄 Edinburgh-based Rhizocore, a fungal startup that helps to promote tree-growth, raised £3.5m from ReGen Ventures, Collaborative Fund, and Grok Ventures. TH
💳 Glasgow-based fintech startup Know-it has just launched its cloud-based credit management platform (chasing for invoices, checking and monitoring credit scores, etc) for accountants and SMEs. SBN
💸 If you're building a company in Glasgow, the Glasgow Dealroom platform has a new feature: uploading a pitch and claiming your company profile to help with fundraising.
💰 St Andrews-based investment firm Eos received pledges of £10 million from British Business Investments (British Business Bank) to invest alongside its fund and Angel syndicate. DGT
🍷 Glasgow-based Lasse Melgaard, of Two Racoons (making fruit wine from surplus fruits and growing mushrooms from the fermentation waste) won a Next Steps Award. Cheers! IN
🏰 ScotlandIS released a survey that reports 42% of companies report a turnover below £250k, while the number of companies that have reached £1m+ has risen from 19% to 31%. TS
🍺 Edinburgh-based ethical brewer Brewgooder just released a new beer made from fonio, an African super-grain that will benefit fonio farmers in West Africa. TG
🌎 Tech is driving foreign direct investment into Scotland that's outpacing the UK and Europe, according to EY. Scotland's share of the UK total increased from 12.3% to 13.6% while 19.2% of surveyed investors plan to establish or expand operations in Scotland. FS
🚀 Edinburgh-based aerospace startup Skyrora is testing a 3d-printed engine they hope to be used in rocket launches from Shetland. TNW
👢 Edinburgh-based Hunter Boots has gone into administration with debts of more than £100m, which is quite the puddle. TH
📣 Asks & Offers
💡 Who do you know? Edinburgh-based clean-tech spinout Exergy3 (ultra-high temperature energy storage technology) has closed a funding round and is hiring:
🙋 Interested in being a COO/CEO? A successful startup (12-15 people) are looking for someone to lead it into its next phase. Seeking a founder mentality who is willing to experiment and explore new avenues while being in charge of the company's operations. A great opportunity for the right person who can have a genuine impact on the company in an exciting industry (Earth Science Tech). Reply to this email for more info.
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📅 Events
⛓️ 26/06, 17:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Monthly Scottish Blockchain Meetup: "Empowering humanity to do good: A blockchain innovation for cleaner oceans” by Jonathan Else, "The Network State and The Wealth of Nations in the Web3 Age" by Dr Maciej Zurawski, plus lots of time for networking. MORE INFO
🌵 26/06, 17:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: NoCode Scotland Meetup: Whether you're a NoCode enthusiast or just looking to get started learning how you can build software without writing code, you're very welcome to come along. MORE INFO
🎨 27/06, 12:00 🗺️ Stirling: Marketing Meetup: A quick and insightful in-person meetup, open to all marketers, to share your experience and learn from others. MORE INFO
🤗 27/06, 17:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Techscaler Summer Sessions: Edinburgh & Lothians: Join us to celebrate the growth of the tech startup community. MORE INFO
🧬 27/06, 18:00 🗺️ Dundee: Dundee Data Meetup: Join us for Dundee Data Meetup #1, a community-driven meeting for anyone passionate about data. MORE INFO
🤖 28-29/06, 0900 🗺️ Edinburgh: Turing Fest 2023: Europe's best tech event for product, growth & startups. MORE INFO
🔥 28/06, 19:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Campfire @ Turing Fest: The most relaxed get together you can possibly imagine. We'll be hanging out at the Beehive Inn from 19:30. No RSVP necessary.
🏄♀️ 28/06, 08:45 🗺️ Edinburgh: Business Connections, BWC Edinburgh: Network with likeminded businesswomen, meet the BWC Edinburgh team and enjoy a coffee, breakfast and collaborate with members and non member. MORE INFO
🚀 28/06, 11:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Funding routes for high growth technology companies: Lunch and learn focusing on funding routes for high growth technology companies. MORE INFO
🤖 28/06, 18:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Diverse AI Launch: Official Scottish launch event for Diverse AI, a not-for-profit community interest company working to support and grow diversity in AI. MORE INFO
🤝 28/06, 19:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Entrepreneurs Social Club (ESC): The social club for entrepreneurs - skip the talks, presentations and lectures - in favour of going straight to the bar to connect! MORE INFO
🗒️ 28/06, 19:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Open Tech Scene Meetup BarCamp Edition: We've got whiteboards, post-its and markers. You can write a topic on a post-it and add it to the whiteboard, then add a dot to tally interest on anyone else's post-its. MORE INFO
♻️ 29/06, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: GreenTech Meetup: A chance for all those in the sustainability space, or those who want to become more sustainable, to get together and learn for each other. MORE INFO
✏️ 29/06, 17:15 🗺️ Edinburgh: Barclays and CodeBase, Edinburgh's monthly quiz: Join us for this month's pub quiz - bringing together the CodeBase and Edinburgh community for a bit of fun! MORE INFO
⚡ 29/06, 19:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: People, Planet, Pint: Sustainability Meetup: Come and meet others interested in the Net Zero, Bcorp and Environmental space! MORE INFO
🙏 04/07, 09:30 🗺️ Online: Doing More by Doing Less: Understanding & Managing Demands: Highly interactive, 2.5-hour, online workshop we look at this thorny issue of managing our demands, prioritising and saying no so that we can actually get more important work done, by doing less. MORE INFO
🧗♀️ 04/07, 09:30 🗺️ Online: Scottish Women in Business July Virtual Meetup: Connect, Communicate and Collaborate with other smart, successful women in business - and are open networking event is for any woman in business, whether running your own company, freelancing or employed at any level. MORE INFO
💻 04/07, 18:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Tech Meetup: We have some interesting speakers, talks and games lined up with lots of time for networking. MORE INFO
☕ 05/07, 08:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: Unfiltered Aberdeen: Connect with members of the local tech community. MORE INFO
☕ 05/07, 08:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Unfiltered Edinburgh: Connect with members of the local tech community, the coffee is on us! MORE INFO
☕ 05/07, 08:30 🗺️ Stirling: Unfiltered Stirling: Connect with members of the local tech community, the coffee and hotdesking are on us! MORE INFO
☕ 05/07, 08:30 🗺️ Glasgow: Unfiltered Glasgow: Connect with members of the local tech community, come for a coffee, stay for the hotdesking! MORE INFO
☕ 05/07, 08:30 🗺️ Dundee: Unfiltered Dundee: Connect with members of the local tech community, the coffee and pastries are on us! MORE INFO
☕ 05/07, 08:30 🗺️ Inverness: Unfiltered Inverness: Connect with members of the local tech community, the coffee and pastries are on us! MORE INFO
💻 06/07, 18:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Glasgow Tech Meetup: Introduction to Load Testing by Dougal Matthews, Infrastructure as Code by Sarah Lean, plus lots of time for networking. MORE INFO
💻 10/07, 18:30 🗺️ Inverness: Inverness Tech Meetup: We have some interesting speakers, and talks lined up with lots of time for networking. MORE INFO
🎨 11/07, 12:00 🗺️ Stirling: Marketing Meetup: A quick and insightful in-person meetup, open to all marketers, to share your experience and learn from others. MORE INFO
Deadlines
🎯 Open 💡 Applications are open for the RBS Accelerator programme MORE INFO
🎯 20/06 📱 KPMG has opened submissions for Tech Innovator in the UK 2023. Initial heat will take place on 20 June to find a shortlist of innovators representing Scotland. Finalists UK-wide will be announced at Web Summit 2023 in Lisbon. MORE INFO
🎯 30/06 🚀 Barclay's Entrepreneurship Awards 2023 are open for nominations across 8 categories: Startup, Sustainability, International Expansion, Scale-up, Social, Eagle Labs Innovation, Barclaycard Payments, Games MORE INFO
🎯 01/09 🤓 Applications are now open for the Scottish Cyber Awards. MORE INFO
🇬🇧 Upcoming Innovate UK deadlines:
SBRI: Quantum Catalyst Fund Phase 1 and phase 2 Applications close 27 June
ARMD2 - Late Stage R&D towards net zero automotive futures Applications close 28 June
Ofgem Round 3: Call for Ideas Submissions close 21 August
India – UK Collaborative R&D for industrial sustainability Applications close 6 April
UK-Israel Eureka Bilateral Collaborative R&D: Round 2 Applications close 13 September
Innovate UK Smart grants: June 2023 Applications close 27 September 2023
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That’s all for this week - have a great one!
Team 🔥Campfire