Scotland’s tech firms to vie for global spotlight in KPMG innovator competition

The competition – KPMG Private Enterprise Global Tech Innovator – is now in its 11th year and has seen previous winners such as What3Words, SafetoNet, FIDOTech and 2022 winner HiiROC who went on to win the global final during Web Summit.

The competition is open to scale-up businesses who are growing quickly.

Successfully shortlisted businesses will be invited to pitch their business and present their growth ambitions to panels of industry experts for a Scottish heat.

The Scotland winner will pitch again at a UK final. The UK winner will then pitch at the global final to be held in Lisbon during Web Summit later in the year. There they will pitch in front of an audience of industry specialists and global investors.

Almost 400 aspiring tech giants applied to the competition last year, which was ultimately won by St Helens based Inovus Medical for the technology they are using to provide a solution to the global surgeon shortage via their state-of-the-art digital surgery platform.

Aberdeen based Leap Automation, a robotics and AI business was crowned the winner of the Scotland heat in 2023.

Amy Burnett, head of KPMG private enterprise access, said: “Our search for Scotland’s top tech innovators aims to shine a light on some of the country’s most exciting businesses and ideas.

“Over the few years, we have seen our competition go from strength to strength as our tech ecosystems in Scotland continues to mature, grow and develop. Innovation is now firmly on the agenda of businesses and policy makers as a vital contributor to the health and wealth of our economy.

“This competition is a great platform to help profile, recognise and celebrate the outstanding technology being developed across the Scotland, and the wider UK.”

The competition is open to pure technology, tech-enabled, tech-led, or tech-driven businesses. Shortlisted entrants will be invited to pitch their innovations and present their growth plans to a panel of judges across eight regional heats.

The winners of each regional stage will then go on to the national final to be held in London in July. The overall winner will then go on to represent the UK at Web Summit later in the year where a panel of global judges will crown the KPMG Private Enterprise Global Tech Innovator.