Edinburgh is central to Scottish history, with Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile and Holyrood Parliament sitting comfortably in its quarters. But it has carved itself out as something as a tech hub, too.
A springboard for Skyscanner and FreeAgent, Scotland’s capital also hosts operations for Microsoft, IBM, Adobe and more.
What you might not know is that the Scottish government wants to focus on making the country the ‘data capital of Europe’, focusing on improving its digital infrastructure and applying data science to products and services.
Edinburgh is keen to support these innovations and ideas, with Archangels, Par Equity and Pentech Ventures among the city’s roster of investors.
The University of Edinburgh has many accelerators for early-stage businesses – and is an institution renowned for engineering, life sciences and entrepreneurship. It’s got its own venture capital venture fund, Old College Capital, providing investment alongside commercialisation support to on-campus ventures.
Herriot-Watt University is also strong for engineering and tech, as is Edinburgh Business School. Edinburgh Napier is a hive for entrepreneurial students, complete with an in-house incubator. As you can imagine, that’s a big talent pool to help your company thrive.
For business support more broadly, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce and Scottish Chambers of Commerce are based in Edinburgh. They can help with marketing, training, policy and support with entering new markets.
Let’s take a gander at the most exciting tech companies in Scotland’s capital.
Neurolabs
Founded in Edinburgh in 2018, Neurolabs specialises in computer vision and synthetic data production. This means that you can snap a photo of a grocery shelf and get product-level insights using AI, while synthetic data helps to train AI at scale. The firm completed a Series A funding round in April 2025 for $7.8 million (£5.9 million).
The firm took expertise from labs of Edinburgh University to build image recognition technologies for consumer packaged goods.
Macomics
Macromics targets macrophage activity to alter the outcome of diseases, progressing new treatments for diseases to replace ones that are less effective.
A spinout from Edinburgh University, the firm raised £3.2 million in a seed round led by Epidarex Capital as well as the Scottish Investment Bank.
Gecko
Gecko is a student engagement platform for higher education, and has raised £1.8 million in investment, led by Mercia Fund Managers. It was founded in 2012 by Matthew Lanham.
Appointedd
Appointedd is a cloud-based online booking platform for SME and enterprise businesses. It was founded in 2011 by Leah Hutcheon and has raised £2.5 million in investment, taking on well-known clients such as Charlotte Tilbury and Mamas & Papas.
BR-DGE
BR-DGE is a software company in Scotland’s capital. It helps merchants, financial institutions, payment providers and platforms to increase revenue, optimise costs and manage payments performance. It also provides access to payment technology providers and flexible fraud solutions.
Founded in 2018 by Brian Coburn, BR-DGE raised around £2.5 million in Series A funding during 2020, backed by Gloag Investments.
Carbogenics
Another on the list University of Edinburgh spinouts, Carbogenics makes biochar from difficult to recycle organic waste and performs wastewater screenings. In fact, it makes a specialist biochar which enhances anaerobic digestion. It’s landed almost half a million pounds in funding from at the end of 2024, with funding from Green Angel Ventures and Kaplak Ventures.
Carbogenics even won Scottish Edge in 2019. Find out more about Scottish Edge and other grant funding opportunities at 150 UK small business grants to apply for right now .
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