Techscaler, the Scottish Government’s tech startup support programme, has announced a strategic partnership with FinTech Scotland.
The organisations are looking to drive forward Scotland’s FinTech sector development.
FinTech SMEs now employ more than 10,500 people across 226 enterprises in Scotland, with around 38% of FinTechs having reached the scaleup stage.
“This collaboration is about getting behind Scotland scaling for tech, together,” said Nicola Anderson, CEO of FinTech Scotland.
“It underscores our joint dedication to cultivating innovation and showcasing the vibrant FinTech community in Scotland.
“We look forward to bringing tangible benefits to our scaling fintech SMEs, and sharing our sector expertise with Techscaler founders, to build a robust and forward-thinking FinTech cluster.”
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FinTech Scotland’s affiliated scaling firms will now be able to access the comprehensive benefits offered by Techscaler membership, opening the door to an extensive network and support system of mentorship, educational courses, community events, and more, enhancing collaboration opportunities and fostering growth for FinTech innovators.
Techscaler runs three main programmes – Startup First Steps, Startup Next Steps, and Reforge. Techscaler’s partnership with Reforge, the world’s leading career development platform for top-tier professionals in tech, brings access to Silicon Valley playbooks and best practices to founders in Scotland who are scaling their teams.
Yasmin Sulaiman, VP of partnerships for CodeBase, said: “Connecting the diverse parts of the tech ecosystem is a huge part of our job running Techscaler for the Scottish Government.
“When organisations like ours and FinTech Scotland come together to understand founders’ needs, we’re able to offer a much stronger suite of support and join up founders with the opportunities they’re looking for to grow.
“We’re looking forward to growing our partnership, and helping connect our community to FinTech Scotland’s expertise.”
Innovation Minister Richard Lochhead said: “Our £42 million Techscaler network is already showcasing some of Scotland’s most promising startups. This partnership with FinTech Scotland is another example of how the Techscaler network is helping to galvanise our innovative, collaborative and inclusive tech community by sharing knowledge and supporting growth.”
Through the partnership, Techscaler will lend its expertise to initiatives such as the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), launched by FinTech Scotland in December in partnership with mutual partners the University of Strathclyde and University of Glasgow.
This initiative seeks to advance understanding and adoption of new and emerging technologies in FinTech through industry-led innovation challenges, skills and education programmes, workshops, roundtables, conferences and trade missions.
Techscaler has forged multiple partnerships across and beyond the Scottish tech ecosystem since it has been operational, including with the Chief Scientist Office’s NHS Innovation Hubs, govtech funding challenge programme CivTech, and STAC, the Internet of Things accelerator.