Scottish Cities Alliance

Glasgow has become home to a vibrant start-up ecosystem, supported by the creation of a supportive environment for early-stage companies. These organisations have been financed by seed stage capital, with access to an extensive angel network, along with a talent pipeline fed by four world-class higher education institutions.

The city has grown an investment appetite around a number of industry clusters: advanced manufacturing, net zero, healthtech and precision medicine, the space economy, fintech, and the digital and creative economy.

Important as these are, crucially Glasgow wants to consider the under-represented and help a diverse community of business founders, positioning itself as a destination for tech start-ups and diversity. It particularly wants to attract more female entrepreneurs, who are significantly under-represented across early-stage and start-up activities.

This effort takes on greater importance when one considers that according to the Scottish Government, despite more than half of Scotland’s population being female, currently only one in five of the country’s entrepreneurs are women, while start-ups founded by women in Scotland receive just 2% of overall investment capital.

In seeking to redress this imbalance, Glasgow is working with AccelerateHer, an organisation which aims to help UK female business founders scale up companies, access investment and be visible enough to inspire others.

AccelerateHer wants to increase the number of female entrepreneurs working in areas such as biosciences. Opportunities arise in the femtech space, not least because male investors often shy away from the topic, while the physiological, emotional and economic strain of misdiagnoses of female medical issues is something that needs to be addressed. 

Glasgow is also working with Eagle Labs, a co-working and tech mentoring service created by Barclays Bank and situated in their new Glasgow Campus, which offers a range of support services, including access to expert mentoring and funding opportunities.

The Eagle Labs incubator space provides a nucleus in Tradeston, an area on the fringes of the city centre on the south bank of the River Clyde, synonymous with trade activity and commerce but which has over the last 20 years been underused. By developing the Eagle Labs facility in a part of the city which felt closed off to so many for so long, Barclays is reconnecting the area to the centre and activating the riverside.

Another significant element in the promotion of the city as a destination for investment and entrepreneurial activity has been the Glasgow Startup Ecosystem platform, a UK first. Such an ecosystem is ideal for the likes of AccelerateHer and Eagle Labs to establish a hub for entrepreneurs and at the same time support diversity. This will be hugely supportive of the efforts of entrepreneurs, particularly women, to grow their ideas into fully-fledged businesses.

The entrepreneurial community previously had no real physical space where community members could convene, and while Glasgow’s start-up ecosystem was already burgeoning, it was quite dispersed across the city.

This situation is being reversed. Entrepreneurial footfall to the Eagle Labs centre is rising due to the improved public realm and activation of the area, combined with initiatives run by the Campus for all those either working there or passing by; it’s effectively becoming a destination location.

According to Mark Logan, chief entrepreneurial advisor to the Scottish Government, Glasgow’s tech ecosystem has entered a virtuous cycle, one where catalysts such as a series of innovation districts, a tech scaler, and an increased focus from the city’s universities on entrepreneurship, are combining to create more, and stronger startups. These, he says, inevitably create more belief, strengthening the ecosystems experience base and leading to further start-up creation.

Another key factor in Glasgow’s tech start-up efforts has been the degree of joined up thinking and collaboration between stakeholders, including UK and Scottish governments, the local council, businesses, and universities. In addition, a tech rent subsidy scheme is successfully encouraging entrepreneurs out of their homes and into office space.

With such support, Glasgow is becoming a gateway for tech entrepreneurship with a difference. Playing host to facilities like Eagle Labs and working with groups such as AccelerateHer, with its focus on creating business start-up opportunities for women, will go a long way to ensuring the city leads the way for others in the future.