Fifteen Scottish artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups have raised £6.27m between them, as part of the University of Edinburgh and Scale Space's Covid recovery accelerator programme.
The five-month AI accelerator programme, based at the Bayes Centre in Edinburgh, ran from February until July, including start-ups with high growth potential to scale-up.
The programme has been funded by the Scottish Funding Council and the Data-Driven Innovation (DDI) Programme.
Many of the companies are addressing a global challenge or responding to urgent needs in the health and climate change domains. Entrepreneurs created AI powered robotic gloves, personalised medicine and ‘x-ray vision’ software.
Among the cohort was iLoF, which raised £1.3m as an initial tranche of a larger £2.5m investment round. MyWay Digital Health was awarded £1.2m in an AI award from NHSx, while SharkTower received £396,000.
Other investments will include a further £3m expected in the next month.
Charlotte Waugh, enterprise and innovation programme lead at Edinburgh Innovations, said: “The companies have made good use of the expertise and support on offer and scaled in a very short time – a testament to their hard work, a great programme team and the thriving ecosystem the university, DDI and Scale Space are delivering through this Accelerator.”
Mark Sanders, chief executive at Scale Space, added: “I’ve seen them refining their propositions, being clearer about their growth plans and how they solve customer problems.
"This has helped them sharpen up their offer to investors and as many have secured investment, I look forward to seeing them continue to scale up and realise their potential.”
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