Late last year, we wrote about eight fintech companies in Glasgow to keep an eye on. In 2022, we’re staying in the largest city in Scotland but expanding our vision to a broader look at the general tech scene.
As with the fintech scene, there’s a lot to love about Glasgow. The Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde are top-flight schools for various tech fields, and it, along with Edinburgh, are the key factors to Scotland’s growth in the digital sector. The below eight are just a small sampling of the rich opportunities available in the city for both investment and employment.
Adimo
This firm aims to bring the impulse purchasing of window-shopping to the online space. Its platform can “drive online sales”.
Adimo’s solutions include a “buy now” button on branded content to take a user straight to an online retailer, a “where to buy” function that shows potential buyers where to find company products offline, and “shoppable packaging” which slaps QR codes on the back of products so customers can just scan that to replenish their supply. In effect, these solutions accomplish many of the same things that hyperlinks do for text-based content like this article.
Adimo’s portfolio of partners counts the likes of Nestlé, Bacardi and Coca-Cola among its number, and in January it eyed US expansion in the wake of a $2.1 million (£1.54 million) funding round.
arbnco
Established in 2015, arbnco now operates across the US and Europe, and aims to optimise real estate performance with its data analytics platform and “human-centric building technology”.
From energy optimisation to air quality, its software solutions seek to make buildings better for both their occupants and owners.
With a small established base in the UK, arbnco expanded internationally in 2021, partnering with the Southern Company, one of the largest energy companies in the US. It has an office in Plymouth, Michigan. The firm has also partnered with the UK government to monitor air quality in schools; and last month announced a partnership with British Gas.
Biomage
Founded in 2019, Biomage specialises in life science analytics. Its platform, which uses Harvard Medical School’s open-source, cloud-based Cellenics tool, is designed to aid in the analysis of single-cell sequencing data. The platform is available for free for academic researchers.
The company explains that scientists “studying cancer, cardiovascular health, and developmental biology” utilise its platform, and, in addition to its academic community, are actively looking for partnerships with biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
According to Crunchbase, Biomage currently has $1.8 million (£1.3 million) in seed funding with hopes to grow further in 2022.
Candidate.ID
Recruitment and the resultant hiring process is one of the more difficult parts of running a business. Finding potential employees with the right qualifications who are a culture fit can be a struggle for even the most talented hiring managers.
Candidate.ID’s platform is designed to aid in this process, giving recruiters the tools to better engage, nurture and convert candidates into applicants. The firm uses real-time scoring models to show which candidates in its clients’ pipeline are “hire-ready”.
Active since 2015, the company has secured a fair number of clients including The Open University, Executive Network Group and Adevinta. Candidate.ID adds that it is the first company to automate the GDPR compliance in the recruitment realm.
Dxcover
Touting itself as the “Future of Cancer Diagnostics”, this University of Strathclyde spinout got its start in 2019. Through AI diagnostic algorithms and infrared spectroscopy, the Dxcover hardware platform hopes to provide early cancer detection while sidestepping the need for invasive biopsies.
The firm had a busy 2021. In March, it completed a $4.8 million (£3.5 million) investment round. Originally known as ClinSpec Diagnostics, it rebranded to Dxcover in June. Finally, in August, Dxcover acquired all IP related to its cancer detection technology.
For 2022, Dxcover hopes to begin Series A Funding, with eyes toward a full commercial launch in 2024.
Exizent
In business, it’s important to find your niche, something that makes your company’s product unique and valuable beyond any other company’s product. Arriving in 2018, Exizent came with a singular focus: providing a platform to ease the probate process.
Probates are the legal processes that happen when someone dies which can include proving the deceased’s will is valid in a court of law, appraisal of their property, and payment of any debts or taxes they might have left behind. It’s a morbid business, but Exizent has been successful in it.
In 2020, the tech company raised $4.9 million (£3.6 million) in funding and named former Deutsche Bank CIO Mitchel Lenson as Non-Executive Chairman. In 2021, Exizent became a member of the Scottish Financial Enterprise, a representative body for the Scottish financial industry, and announced a partnership with Experian to further strengthen its platform’s ability to aid in the bereavement process.
R3-IoT
R3-IoT’s focus has largely been on cloud-based digitisation. Utilising satellite communications and “remote sensor to cloud” technology, it provides companies operating in areas without cellular connectivity to digitise their assets in the cloud more effectively.
According to its website, this tech can be deployed in a variety of fields, including agriculture, energy, “rural health” and environmental monitoring.
R3-IoT had a successful 2021, securing a $4.3 million (£3.1 million) investment in July, doubling the size of its team, and being named one of the winners of OneWeb’s 2021 Innovation Challenge.
Talking Medicines
Talking Medicines specialises in using machine learning to provide pharmaceutical companies “patient intelligence”.
In other words, the tech firm takes signals sourced from various social media platforms like Twitter or Reddit, uses machine learning models to identify a “Patient Voice” match that voice up to relevant medicines, and put the results into a chart measuring patient confidence by the day. In theory, this can provide companies with deeper insights into people’s confidence in their brands and medicines.
The company has managed to raise $1.5 million (£1.1 million) in funding in 2020. In February 2021, Talking Medicines launched its platform for commercial use. The company also entered into a partnership with social media data company Socialgist to expand their data source coverage.
Have a look at the features on Scottish firms in the cybersecurity and data sectors.
You can check out our features on fintech companies in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Earlier this month we wrote about notable tech companies in Edinburgh.
