Scottish EDGE Round 19 winners secure a share of £1.5 million investment

I spent a hugely enjoyable day at the end of May at the RBS Gogarburn conference centre, watching the second of two days of well-prepared pitches from a wide variety of Scottish start-up businesses (and colleagues told me that that the first of the two days was equally impressive). I was therefore delighted to be able to attend a dinner at the same place marking the culmination of Round 19 of Scottish EDGE, at which £1.5 million of about £20 million awarded to start-up businesses since 2013 was announced.

As well as the winners of the main competition, awards were also presented in the Young EDGE (for companies where all directors are under 30) and Wild Card EDGE for pre-trading companies, sole traders and partnerships. There are too many very worthy award winners to mention here, several of whom we as a firm have already been fortunate enough to work with on their intellectual property. However, as a patent attorney specialising in chemistry and pharmaceuticals, it is thrilling to see recognition for companies like Edinburgh-based Lentitek, investigating cancer therapeutics (which received £100,000), University of Strathclyde spin-out Rostra Therapeutics, working on novel treatments for infectious diseases (which received £80,000) and Renfrew-based Recover Packaging (which received £80,000), which makes recyclable film technology for food packaging.

Marks & Clerk is more than delighted to work with a number of the award winners and to partner with this exciting business competition. We congratulate all of the award winners for their hard work not just in starting up their businesses but succeeding in the competition, and wish them the best of success going forward. Round 20 of the EDGE competitions opens next month and we can't wait to see what comes next!