Page 21 - Doing Data Together by The Scotsman
P. 21
David Lee flicks through his diary as he looks back at some of the highlights from the last 12 months in the life of the sector in Scotland
investment from venture capitalists during 2019, with investment in the wider UK technology sector soaring to a record high of £10.1 billion.
CodeClan, the digital
skills academy, recruited
Vanessa Dawson from the
University of Edinburgh to
become its chief delivery
oicer, completing an all-
female leadership team
consisting of chief executive Melinda Matthews Clarkson, commercial and business development director Sara Dodd, finance and human resources director Mary Fitzgerald, and chief marketing oicer Linda Scott, pictured.
American firm Merkle opened a data analytics oice in Aberdeen in response to local demand from the oil and gas and food and drink industries.
The expansion came a year after the company opened an oice in Edinburgh.
APRIL 2020
The Scottish Tech Army was launched to harness the talents of furloughed data analysts and other digital technology experts to find solutions to problems faced by the public sector. More than 700 volunteers signed up within the first month, with 30 of the 80 project ideas being put into action.
send and exchange cryptocurrencies online. The company, which has also received financial backing from Murray Capital and the Scottish Investment Bank, trumpeted its app for centralising a user’s control over their financial, personal, employment and genetic data.
Former Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy was among a group of investors that pumped £750,000 into Edinburgh- based technology firm PlayerData to fund its expansion.
Continuum Industries, an Edinburgh-based construction technology firm, secured £1.5 million of funding, with Chris Smith, managing partner at Playfair Capital, joining the company’s board. Continuum Industries applies artificial intelligence to improve construction companies’ engineering design processes.
JUNE 2020
Bellrock Technology, the Glasgow-based firm behind data analysis software package Lumen, secured £1 million from investors and welcomed Steve Langmead aboard as its chairman.
Former FanDuel chief financial oicer Brendan Waters joined Edinburgh-based artificial intelligence software firm Sharktower as its finance chief.
DataFest2020 may have been cancelled back in March, but some of the fringe events were able to move online, including the University of Edinburgh’s “Covid-19 Virtual Data Challenge”, in which teams of undergraduate students were set the task of exploring the eects of Covid-19 on society beyond the simple health impacts.
Electron, the energy technology company behind Orkney’s local energy trading blockchain system, revealed that more than 1,100 trades took place within the first two months of the project being launched.
JULY 2020
Dundee-based GoRoadie secured seed funding from Edinburgh- based Apollo Informal Investments and other business angels to help it develop an online platform that lets learners search, compare and book driving lessons.
Skills Development Scotland
launched guides and resources for careers in data
and artificial intelligence and in software development, with help from ScotlandIS, The Data Lab and Scottish Enterprise.
Renfrewshire Council announced plans to install sensors in its social housing to measure temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels, providing early alerts about
dampness or problems with ventilation.
Edinburgh-based Money Dashboard unveiled its Neon app to allow users to see data from their current,
savings and investment accounts and credit cards in one place.
Online consumer reviews platform Trustpilot received a £1.8m regional selective assistance grant from Scottish Enterprise to help it open a research and development
centre in Edinburgh and create 30 jobs.
Doing
Data
Together
Figures from trade body ScotlandIS’s annual survey of the Scottish digital technology community revealed that a third of companies expected business opportunities will increase due to the coronavirus pandemic, particularly in cloud services, digital connectivity, remote working
technology, and digital health solutions.
Blackfinch Ventures invested £630,000 in Glasgow- based Candidate ID, which is developing software to help employers use data analysis to understand their workers. The Scottish firm has already worked
with clients including Bupa, Nielsen, Specsavers and Thermo Fisher Scientific.
MAY 2020
Zumo, an Edinburgh-based mobile wallet and payments start-up backed by Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman, pictured right, launched its app to store,
Ethical collaboration through Covid-19 and beyond
Online conference
Friday, 6 November, 10am-4pm
Join a range of experts to discuss how ethical and collaborative approaches to data have shaped our response to Covid-19 – and how we are increasingly using data innovation to tackle the toughest regional, national and global challenges
Speakers include:
Professor Sandy Pentland
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Professor Shannon Vallor
University of Edinburgh
Jason Leitch
National Clinical Director, Scottish Government
Professor Devi Sridhar
University of Edinburgh
21