Early stage accelerator looks to create next unicorn

● Seed Haus takes in first cohort amid strong demand ● High-profile partners include Sir Tom Hunter

What is billed as Scotland’s first dedicated pre-seed tech accelerator has been officially launched in Edinburgh in a bid to plug a gap in the start-up support system.

Seed Haus has been backed by a line-up of high-profile investment partners including Sir Tom Hunter, Brewdog co-founder James Watt and technology entrepreneur Chris van der Kuyl.

Its mission is to trigger Scotland’s next billion-dollar business, or “unicorn”.

Co-founded by Calum Forsyth, chief executive, and Robin Knox, chairman, the accelerator aims to fill a gap by providing “the very best founders” with pre-seed investment, mentorship and office space within its Edinburgh incubator. Seed Haus has been structured as a not-for-profit organisation “committed to powering innovation and diversity in technology”.

Since launching an inaugural recruitment drive for early stage start-ups in April, the number of applications to join the six-month programme peaked at more than 160. Around half of these were from overseas founders.

Ultimately, just five applicants have been selected to join the accelerator’s first cohort: Securityctrl, offering cybersecurity for cloud infrastructure; Sansible Wearables, which provides body monitoring technology; Drinkly, an on-demand drinks service; Kindaba, described as a “collaborative communication platform for families”; and Taka, a Parkinson’s therapeutic symptom management system.

Forsyth, whose skill set straddles the worlds of technology and investment owing to his background as both a PHD scientist and time in London as a risk consultant with KPMG, said: “The founders themselves represent a highly-talented, diverse group with considerable experience and achievements already under their respective belts.”

Knox, who grew his own tech start-up, Intelligentpos, into a business that was acquired by izettle last year, said: “We are Scotland’s most selective accelerator and we have big ambitions for the companies we support.

“We seek out people with the best ideas at a very early stage – we are not looking for business plans. Potential is more important to us than business experience.

“Seed Haus is providing exactly the sort of support needed by early stage startups to give them the greatest chance of achieving success and securing the next stage of investment.” It is already recruiting for another cohort. Property investment and development company Bellair (Scotland) has unveiled two senior appointments as it eyes further growth. The firm was founded by managing director Alistair Campbell and his son, Colin Campbell, above right, has joined the business from Jones Lang Lasalle where he was an associate director in the capital markets team. Crawford Geddes, who has held a number of senior positions in the property industry, also joins as a director.