- EIE survey is the first of its kind to examine the Scottish startup ecosystem, has been running since 2017
- The EIE21 survey will ask startup founders about pandemic pivots, new ways of working, funding plans, government support, Brexit, hiring, measures put in place to deal with the wellbeing of the team, and plans to return to the office
- Steve Ewing, Director of Entrepreneurship at Bayes Centre and EIE21 lead: “The survey will take us under the surface and find out how founders have been coping, while keeping their companies on the path to growth”
- Callum Murray, CEO and founder of Amiqus and EIE alumni: “The last year has seen an enormous shift in how people work and we’ve been well placed to help organisations maintain their compliance processes on a fully remote basis”
- Rebecca Pick, CEO and founder of Pick Protection and EIE alumni: “It’s certainly been an interesting year and we’re excited for the challenge of helping our customers keep safe and remain compliant as we enter the transition phase of returning to the ‘new normal’”
EIE21, Scotland’s premier tech investor conference which will see company founders pitch for investment from seed level to up to multimillion series A and later stage investment rounds on 10th June, has launched the annual EIE Scottish Startup Survey.
The EIE Scottish Startup Survey, the first of its kind to examine the Scottish startup ecosystem, has been running since 2017 and this year will ask startups across Scotland about the main challenges faced and opportunities achieved in a year characterised by the ongoing Covid pandemic.
Steve Ewing, Director of Entrepreneurship at Bayes Centre and EIE21 lead, said: “The pandemic has been all encompassing for over a year now, and we know our startups have been impacted. Inherently, running a startup has never been anything short of incredibly hard work, and that has been amped up since the onset of Covid. We hope the survey will take us under the surface and find out how founders have been coping, while keeping their companies on the path to growth.”
The EIE21 survey will ask startup founders a range of questions, including around whether they have had to pivot in the face of the pandemic, new ways of working, if funding plans have been affected, what kind of government support has been accessed, Brexit impact, hiring strategies, what kind of measures have been put in place to deal with wellbeing, physical and mental health during remote working, and plans to return to the office.
Callum Murray, CEO and founder of Amiqus, an EIE alumni and two-time pitch of the day winner whose company provides a market-leading platform for businesses to securely manage staff and client on boarding compliance, said: “The last year has seen an enormous shift in how people work and we’ve been well placed to help organisations maintain their compliance processes on a fully remote basis. Yesterday’s R&D or continuity processes have become business as usual and we’ve been fortunate to scale across sectors as a result.”
Rebecca Pick, CEO and founder of Pick Protection, an EIE alumnus startup that provides a range of easy to use lone worker protection solutions, said: “During the pandemic, we’ve seen a massive shift in the ways that employees work. More people than ever are working from home, shift patterns have changed, staff numbers have been reduced and so on, so at Pick Protection we’ve started to cater to businesses that previously never had a requirement for lone worker solutions. It’s certainly been an interesting year and we’re excited for the challenge of helping our customers keep safe and remain compliant as we enter the transition phase of returning to the ‘new normal’.”
EIE has supported over 500 tech startups since 2008 who have collectively raised around £750 million from seed through to Series A and later stage funding – with Current Health, FanDuel, Celtic Renewables, Amiqus, Two Big Ears, Speech Graphics, pureLiFi and mLed among EIE alumnus companies.
EIE21 company cohort: https://www.eie-invest.com/2021-company-cohort/
Findings of the Scottish Startup Survey will be released in the run-up to EIE21 in June.
