Theo Health & Gigged.AI Raise, Munro Vehicles order book, Call for speakers on AI
Here's your Campfire for the 14th of July, 2025.
💼 Coming this month: HR & Employment Law for Startup Founders: Whether you're at the beginning of your start-up journey or up and running, having an understanding of employment law and your business' HR needs is crucial. Olivia Greener, solicitor in Shepherd & Wedderburn’s employment team, and Scott Baxter, founder and director of Emploi HR Consultancy will be covering what you need to know to make sure you're set up for success as your business grows. 30 July, 18:30, Edinburgh. RSVP here.
🌊 Updates
🚙 Glasgow-based EV maker Munro Vehicles has completed 18 months of off-road testing for its all-electric Series M and now holds a £17 million order book. Designed for sectors like mining, defence, and emergency services, the rugged, zero-emission vehicles aim to “support the shift to net zero”. TS
🩳 Glasgow-based sports tech startup Theo Health raised £1.2m to scale its smart compression wear for athletes, with Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele joining as investor and test user. Its ‘Alpha Shorts’ provide real-time biomechanical data to aid performance and injury prevention, with a mass market launch planned for 2027. UKTN DGT IN
💻 4-year old Glasgow startup Gigged.AI raised £1m in funding from Par Equity, Scottish Enterprise, and angels to grow its Skills Intelligence Platform in the UK and US. The platform “helps enterprises tackle tech talent shortages by mapping internal staff, contractors, and AI agents to projects.” DGT IN
🤖 Call for speakers: The European Chatbot & Conversational AI Summit 2026 taking place in March 2026 in Edinburgh has released a call for speakers. Expertise requested includes: Agentic AI & Autonomous Agents, Prompt Engineering & Prompt Design, Conversational Design at Scale, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Open Source LLMs & Frameworks, Multimodal AI & Voice-first Interfaces, Real-time Personalization & User Modeling, LLMOps & AI Infrastructure, Ethics, Safety, & Alignment in Conversational AI, EU AI Act, Governance & Responsible AI Policies, Research & Case Studies in Human-AI Collaboration. Submit for yourself or nominate a peer here.
💰 Scotland’s first decentralised finance (DeFi) summit will be held on 6 August at the University of Edinburgh’s John McIntyre Centre, bringing together “fintech leaders and policymakers to explore blockchain-based tools for lending, payments, and asset tokenisation.” The event aims to highlight real-world DeFi applications and Scotland’s potential in “shaping regulation and innovation in the growing global market.” FS
📣 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.
🦾 Makerspace, Coworking, Hardware lab: thebeyond, a thriving hub of innovation: Whether you’re a founder, builder, creative, or part of a growing team - there’s a membership option that fits the way you work. 🌟 Big ideas need the right space. Come see what’s possible in thebeyond
💼 Work with TopHatch: Senior Frontend Engineer (Remote, UK/Finland) Looking for a place where you can bring your whole self to work and make a real impact? TopHatch, a remote-first company behind the award-winning app Concepts, is hiring a Senior Frontend Engineer (Contract, £60–£70/hr) based in the UK or Finland to work with modern web technologies in a supportive, people-first environment. Apply here.
✈️ TravelPerk, a hyper-growth SaaS company revolutionising business travel, is hiring a Senior Software Engineer in Edinburgh. You'll work with modern tech (Python/Django, React), shape product architecture, and join a fast-paced, award-winning team trusted by brands like Wise and Red Bull. Apply 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!
“You don’t know what you don’t know”
“Unlike other disciplines like finance and accounting, if you make a small mistake, these are usually straightforward to fix,” Scott Baxter, Founder and Director of Emploi HR Consultancy says, “With employment issues, even if you do everything else right, as soon as you do something wrong, it’s really unforgiving.” Raising visibility of all the things that could go wrong, highlighting risk awareness, and staying briefed with best practices all help you avoid issues later on down the line.
Olivia Greener, Employment Solicitor at Shepherd and Wedderburn adds, “Good proactive awareness helps you manage relationships with employees. Often issues emerge not because founders have behaved badly but because they simply didn’t know what they didn’t know about employment law, like specific things you need to include in your contracts, mandatory policies, additional policies that might help foster a better culture, and understanding what’s behind phrases like ‘discrimination’ and ‘unfair dismissal’.
👉 Learn what you don’t know, and how best to stay informed and be proactive with everything connected to employing people and building a high performing team: July 30, Edinburgh: Growing your business: HR and employment law for startup founders. Register here.
📅 Events
🌐 14/07, 15:00 🗺️ Online: Space data for industry – Denmark Innovation Call Launch: Join us for the official launch of the Innovation Challenge: Space Data for Industry Denmark. MORE INFO
⭐ 17/07, 14:00 🗺️ Isle of Man: Own your space: Personal branding on LinkedIn: Join us in The Boardroom at Santander Work Café for an interactive lunchtime workshop all about building your personal brand on LinkedIn. MORE INFO
✨ 17/07, 14:00 🗺️ Hawick: Power of Podcasting - Hawick: This powerful session will give you an up-to-date overview of how audio, from simple voice notes to full podcasts, can transform your business communication. MORE INFO
✨ 18/07, 10:00 🗺️ Dumfries: Power of Podcasting - Dumfries: This powerful session will give you an up-to-date overview of how audio, from simple voice notes to full podcasts, can transform your business communication. MORE INFO
🎯 22/07, 18:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Founders Meetup Edinburgh - July 2025: Tactical fireside chats with experienced entrepreneurs and speed networking with other founders, potential cofounders, and investors! MORE INFO
🥐 24/07, 10:00 🗺️ Glasgow: Glasgow - People, Planet, Pastry: Meet others interested in sustainability in your community, share local stories and ideas, and accelerate local climate action. MORE INFO
🌍 24/07, 17:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Traveltech Meet up: Whether you're a startup founder, developer, marketer, or simply working in travel and technology, this is a chance to connect with others in the sector. MORE INFO
🍺 24/07, 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
🦀 24/07, 18:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: July talks: A Crab, a Pufferfish and a State-of-the-art Chess AI: Applying OpenBSD’s Secure Software Design Pattern in Rust and Exploring a State-of-the-art Chess AI built with Rust. MORE INFO
🤝 25/07, 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
⛓ 25/07, 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
💡 29/07, 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
👟 30/07, 16:00 🗺️ Glasgow: July Startup Run Club: Whether you’re a runner, a walker, or just in it for the coffee and conversation - this is a relaxed way to step away from the desk and get outside. We’ll meet for a gentle loop, followed by drinks and chats to unwind from the working day alongside fellow founders and innovators. MORE INFO
💻 30/07, 17:30 🗺️ Aberdeen: Code-Free AI: Building Smarter Agents with Zapier: Discover how to harness AI and automation—no coding required. Learn how founders, creatives, and small teams use Zapier to build intelligent workflows that save time and scale impact. Featuring real-world demos, expert insights, and practical takeaways, this event is perfect for anyone ready to explore AI-powered productivity tools. Don’t miss this opportunity to level up your automation game! MORE INFO
🟢🌱 30/07, 18:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Growing your business: HR and employment law for startup founders: Whether you're at the beginning of your start-up journey or up and running, having an understanding of employment law and your business' HR needs is crucial. MORE INFO
📍 31/07, 10:00 🗺️ Aberdeen: Barclays Eagle Labs at One Tech Hub Drop in Clinic Jul 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
🤝🏼 05/08, 09:30 🗺️ Glasgow: Female Founders Co-Working Club - August: Stay inspired, motivated and connected throughout 2025 with the Female Founder Co-Working Club at Glasgow Eagle Labs! MORE INFO
🤝 05/08, 17:30 🗺️ Edinburgh: Tech Meetup Edinburgh - August 2025: The Tech Meetup is a monthly excuse for the tech community around Scotland to network, learn and share new ideas! Enjoy informative tech presentations from your peers, hear about exciting community projects and create new connections. MORE INFO
📍 06/08, 09:00 🗺️ Edinburgh: Edinburgh Decentralized Finance Summit: Welcome to a celebration of Decentralized Finance, tokenization and digital asset innovation! Blockchain Scotland is proud to announce Scotland's first Decentralized Finance Summit. MORE INFO
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That’s all for this week - have a great one!
Team 🔥 Campfire