Turner Little looks at the University of Edinburgh being hailed as a major technology hub after a record number of university start-ups in 2014/15.
Turner Little look at new figures which show that a record number of start-up companies were established through the University of Edinburgh’s enterprise support network in the past 12 months. The University supported the formation of 41 start-up companies in 2014/15, taking their overall total to 184 in the past five years – strengthening the University’s position as Scotland’s leading research institution.
Largest technology hub outside London
Grant Wheeler, head of company formation at Edinburgh Research and Innovation, believes that Edinburgh is now emerging as the largest technology hub outside of London, and the figures support his claim. Investment in university-founded companies also hit a record high in the past year, with a total backing of £237million.
As mentioned above, in the last five years Edinburgh has supported the formation of 184 companies, which employ a total of 343 people. Since Edinburgh’s first recorded spin-out company (Reynolds Medical) was established over 40 years ago, the university said it has created a more than 400 start-up and spin-out companies, which have contributed more than £140 million to the Scottish economy.
Student entrepreneurs
All students with start-up ideas are supported by Edinburgh Research and Innovation (ERI) – the University’s commercialisation arm – and wider enterprise network on campus. Recent commercial successes include spin-out pureLiFi, whose light-enabled internet technology is being incorporated at the home of the Golden State Warriors basketball team in San Francisco.
Also performing well is Krotos, which was set up by sound design graduate Orfeas Boteas. It has developed Dehumaniser sound effects software for film, television and video games and was recently used as the voice of Ultron in the latest Marvel’s Avengers movie.
Grant Wheeler commenting on the success said: “Whether it’s from the world-class research base or from the student entrepreneurs, we’re seeing new companies being formed here and in record numbers. And more and more have the potential to develop further.”
Turner Little
Turner Little was founded in 1998 and it has since become a well-established UK based professional Company Registration Agents, Registered Bank Intermediaries and Business Consultants, as well as Trust providers.
