In association with
GEOVATION SCOTLAND
With tailored support and access to a network of experts, Geovation Scotland is stimulating the country's innovative spirit by nurturing tech startups in land, property and location
Innovation is in Scotland’s DNA. Step inside any of the country’s National Museums and you can marvel at examples of how the nation gave birth to world changing solutions - from telephones and television, to refrigerators, pedal bicycles, and penicillin.
In the digital sector, airline ticket aggregator Skyscanner, games giant Rockstar North, and media website Mashable are the names most frequently cited as examples of a sector that is Scotland’s fastest-growing for inward investment.
When Geovation Scotland was launched five years ago, the help available to founders of businesses in the land, property and location technology sector across Scotland was thin on the ground. Five years on, the programme has supported 23 early-stage geotech and proptech companies to create over 65 jobs and gain over £3.5m of investment and funding.
Geovation Scotland is creating an environment where some of the next generation of tech entrepreneurs working with some of Scotland’s key assets – our land, property and location data - can flourish.
Accessing a support network can be a crucial part of keeping you on your feet in those early stages of start-up life.
Being surrounded by like-minded people who share guidance, steer you around pitfalls, and link you to potential investors or mentors act as lifelines for a fledgling business.
And while there may be several start-up programmes out there, finding one that really understands what makes your business tick can be challenging, frustrating even. The more it’s attuned to your specific needs and the sector you operate in, the more effective it will be.
The Geovation Scotland programme itself is founded on those basic principles crucial to any successful business venture, it had a clear vision about supporting innovation in land, property and location. Its annual accelerator has proved to be a major boost for a host of award-winning early-stage start-ups.
Lyndsey Dougan, Head of Innovation and Geovation Scotland, explains: “This is the only support organisation specifically created for early-stage land, property and location tech start-up organisations in Scotland.
“As a partnership between Registers of Scotland and Ordnance Survey, we’re able to provide specialist support for startup companies working within property land and location technology innovation. Not only do our dedicated Geovation Scotland team help companies refine and develop their business ideas, we also plug them into our wider community of data and geospatial experts and a range of advisors and supporters to help them build their ideas into sustainable, scalable businesses.
“There is phenomenal work being done by other business support programmes across the Scottish tech ecosystem, but we are the only bespoke programme for those working in land, property and location innovation in Scotland. The fundamental reason for our existence is to help these startups grow and thrive.”
Crucial to that success has been its bespoke approach designed around each founder. It offers successful applicants’ mentorship, training, and technical support, as well as up to £15,000 of programme funding. They also get access to high quality office space whilst founders on the accelerator, and access to data for 12 months on an exploration licence.
Jess Sibley Geovation Scotland Delivery Lead, adds: “Over the five years since we began, we’ve grown a large network that our companies can make use of to find partnerships and support in their specific sectors. Alongside that we have an active and engaged community of SMEs and peers within Scotland’s wider start-up ecosystem.
“The office space we provide is based in Edinburgh, but this is a truly nationwide programme and we’ve helped founders from across the country on the journey to making their business dreams become reality.”
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
THE network now includes both public sector and private sector organisations, partners from academia, entrepreneurial support, investors, investment opportunities, such as venture capitalists, as well as angel investors.
One of the programme’s biggest challenges, especially in its early years, was identifying the right people who’d benefit most from their support. Because Geovation Scotland was looking to support the growth of a property technology sector that was small by comparison with, say, London, a lot of work was done by the team to get the message out about who they were and what they were offering.
“Five years ago, if we went into a room and said ‘we're here for proptech/geotech companies’ nobody really knew what we were talking about. That’s no longer the case. We've created a valuable network of like-minded people all working in land, property and location innovation who know first-hand the difference Geovation Scotland support can make and have helped us spread the word,” says Jess.
As its profile has risen so the range of sectors that successful applicants to the programme operate has widened. It’s helped everything from tech businesses in the green and climate sectors, to property, legal, geospatial, fintech and spacetech firms.
Jess says: “We're here to support those working in land, property and location innovation, but there's an enormous read-across to other parts of the tech ecosystem. Within property technology alone there are different sub sectors and companies can move from sector to sector depending on what it is they develop.
“Our approach has always been that we are data-specific, but sector-agnostic. The use cases for location and land and property data are almost endless – anything from developing a solution for the decarbonisation of housing to an app that helps tourists store their luggage – and everything in-between.”
The next call for applications from startups looking to join the accelerator programme starts on March 7 and closes on May 6, visit www.geovation.uk/scotland/ to find out how you can apply.
SO, WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL APPLICANT?
THE team urges anyone considering putting their name forward to ask themselves:
■ Is the problem you are looking to solve clear and defined?
■ Have you identified and spoken to potential customers?
■ How are you looking to use location or land and property data?
■ Have you submitted a clear and concise application?
“We are also asking the question - how innovative is this idea?” says Jess, adding:
“Ideally, we want to see proposals that are groundbreaking, and potentially disruptive. They’re the things that really catch our eye.”
The other crucial element to a winning application is the founders themselves. The application process will look to identify people possessing the correct attitude and approach.
Jess continues: “We want entrepreneurs with a growth mindset, that are willing to work with us and take on feedback not just from us, but from potential customers and partners.”
The 12-month accelerator programme is built around three key phases: validation, exploration and traction.
Jess explains: “The validation phase is very much centred around the companies’ value propositions. We need to know that founders understand their market.”
Each company participates in practical workshops to ensure their proposition is robust and well researched.
Jess continues: “During the exploration phase we expect the companies to conduct further tests to explore not only their product market fit, but also potential solutions with customers, before they start building and investing in tech. This ensures companies don’t build anything that is not genuinely valuable to their business.”
The last phase - traction - is all about helping founders to make clear progress and build momentum as they grow; whether this is through the creation of partnerships, support with the building of tech solutions or sourcing additional funding and investment.
Throughout these phases, the programme offers practical, hands-on and tailored support to the founders. This comes in the form of mentorship, coaching, practical sessions and peer-to-peer support, all based around their existing experience and skill sets.
Lyndsey expands on this point, saying: “We always say to the companies ‘you get out of the programme what you put in’. We operate on a cohort basis, so there's a lot of peer-to-peer support and the most successful companies that have come through that cohort format and gained from the support that each company can provide one other.
“Ultimately it takes a start-up founder to understand what other start-up founders are going through. It can be a very lonely place, so, making the most of that cohort relationship is going to be key and you can only get that if you come in with an open mind.”
Toward the nine-month mark of their time on the accelerator, the founders participate in the Geovation Scotland Showcase event. This event is a platform for them to pitch their businesses to an audience of potential investors and stakeholders. Any suggestion that it’s a Dragon’s Den-style grilling has the Geovation Scotland team laughing but shaking their heads.
“Absolutely not. Dragons Den can be a a great platform for startup founders of all types – and it certainly makes for entertaining television, but our Showcase is a million miles from that approach,” says Lyndsey.
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“It is an amazing opportunity by the time our founders get to the Showcase, their companies are really thriving and beginning the next step. Whether that’s heading to market or securing investment. The Showcase affords them a platform to stand up and say out loud to the people that they really want to be working with in future, what their commercial offering looks like.”
GEOVATION SCOTLAND HAS PROVEN ITS WORTH. THE QUESTION NOW IS WHERE DOES IT GO NEXT?
LYNDSEY says: “Scotland’s property technology sector has the potential for significant growth in the next few years. Add to that the unending possibilities that location data can provide and the wider investment in the tech and entrepreneurial ecosystems in Scotland and it makes an exciting prospect.
“As the only organisation providing specialised support in this area, Geovation Scotland has all the tools, connections, data and experience to support the continued development of land, property and location technology innovation.
"We’re keen to speak to companies and founders at all stages of development to share what support, partnerships or connections might be available to them.
“We are so excited to play our part in helping to unlock the untold potential of Scottish property and location technology.”
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