New full-stack engineering agency aims to double turnover by the end of 2027
Filament, the Glasgow-based product design agency, has bolstered and broadened its capabilities by merging with a software development consultancy in a move expected to double the combined group’s turnover by the end of next year.
The addition of Arceptive takes Filament’s headcount to 29 and, following a year of integration and alignment, the agency expects the merger to double its turnover from last year’s £1.75 million by the end of 2027.
Since launching in 2019 Arceptive has successfully delivered digital infrastructure for hardware companies, serving clients from start-ups to multinationals across the UK and Europe. The consultancy specialises in software engineering, cloud architecture, data science, and machine learning.
Arceptive was founded by Stefan Raue and Cham Abeyratna, who have run businesses and built engineering teams together since 2015. They bring more than a decade of hands-on experience founding companies and leading engineering teams across industries including finance, wearable devices, and sports-tech to the Filament team.
Filament and Arceptive already share close ties, having worked on multiple projects together including for Transport Scotland, a range of Scottish Government-funded sustainability projects, and the co-development of Nooku, an IoT start-up that provides air quality monitoring systems for social housing. The companies are also already both based at Skypark’s The Beyond co-working space in Finnieston, which Filament co-founder Gregor Aikman helped establish.
Combining the companies’ expertise creates a full end-to-end IoT product development agency – a unique offering in Scotland and a rarity across the UK. It will also allow Filament to support clients bringing smart products to market more quickly and competitively, particularly in regulated environments such as med-tech and wearable health devices.
Filament has delivered projects for a broad range of businesses, including international brands such as Hotel Chocolat, Tchibo, and IKEA, as well as early stage companies and university spin-outs – most recently through the University of Glasgow’s Infinity G programme. Co-founders Gregor Aikman, Craig Lynn, and Danny Kane have been in business together since 2008, founding Filament in 2015.
Danny Kane, co-founder of Filament, said: “For the past 10 years, we’ve focused on our core competencies and organic growth, but all of our projects have had a software element to them and more than 80% had an IoT or ‘smart’ aspect too. So, combining with Arceptive felt like the next natural iteration of the business.
“We had aligned our systems and ways of working from sharing projects over the years, and this gives our clients the best of both worlds: a full-stack range of services and the agility of a boutique agency. The size of the combined business puts us in a real sweet spot, and it’s also an opportunity for us to scale, diversify our income streams, and develop our own IP.
“We can see the benefits of bringing the businesses together – it will help us be more cost effective, innovate more quickly, support a broader range of clients, and provides a stronger platform for growth. It’s a new and exciting phase for Filament.”
Stefan Raue, co-founder and head of data and analytics at Arceptive, added: “Filament and Arceptive have been delivering projects together for years – we know how each other works, we share the same standards, and we’ve already proven what we can do together. Bringing the two organisations together under one roof simply means we can do it faster and better.
“What we’re creating is genuinely unique – a full-stack engineering partner that takes clients from early concept and design all the way through mechanical, electronics, and digital, under one roof. But what sets us apart is that this isn’t engineering for engineering’s sake – the customer and end user are always at the centre, and that thinking runs through everything we build, from first prototype to final product.
“Arceptive has been building the digital infrastructure for smart device and product companies for over seven years, and we’ve always been most effective when working closely with founders who understand both the physical and digital sides of a product. That’s exactly what this merger brings to the market at scale.
“We’re particularly excited about what AI means for our clients – as a practical tool for our clients to improve our internal processes, sharpen our tooling, and ultimately accelerate delivery. The combination of Filament’s design and engineering pedigree with Arceptive’s data and software expertise, and a shared obsession with customer experience, puts us in a strong position to lead on that.”
