Bayes Centre News: The Bayes Centre Announces 10 Extended Pitch Companies for EIE21.

EIE21's new and improved pitching process and the 10 companies who will be delivering extended pitches at EIE21 on 10th June have been announced.

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 revamped its pitch process for this year’s event. 

The historic one minute pitches have been extended to 3 minutes for 25 of this year’s companies, while 10 companies have been selected to pitch for 5 minutes followed by a 5 minute Q&A with the investor panel that includes SEP’s Stuart Paterson, Silicon Valley Bank’s Flavia Popescu-Richardson, and Old College Capital’s Andrea Young.

View the whole cohort on the EIE website here.

The 10 extended pitch companies are:

• Beta Bugs, an agri-food technology company based at Easter Bush Campus and founded by Dr Thomas Farrugia, develops and distributes high-performance insect breeds as a source of protein for animal feed.
• Bridgeweave, a fintech with offices in India and the UK, aims to transform how the wealth and investments industry engages with its customers through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and new technologies.
• Earth Blox, led by CEO Genevieve Patenaude, is harnessing the power of satellite data without the requirement for computer coding.
• Ionburst is data protection, compliance and security startup based in Edinburgh.
• iOpt is a Opt Ltd is an Internet of Things services company that enables the owners and managers of residential rental properties such as social housing to remotely monitor their properties environmental conditions and energy/heating assets.
• GoBubble is a safety technology company with a mission to make the internet safer for children.  The company says it is building a “safer, healthier and kinder digital community for schools”.   
• LiberEat develops technology aimed at improving food allergy communications for restaurant chains, supermarkets and food producers, and also has a consumer-focused app to help people manage their dietary requirements.  The company, which is headquartered in Aberdeen, was recently named one of Tech Nation’s Rising Stars in a UK-wide competition. 
• Nebu-Flow’s mission is to unlock the delivery of the next generation of inhaled drugs for patients with widespread respiratory disorders, the main cause of death and disability worldwide
• Net AI, a university of Edinburgh spin-out, is a real-time artificial intelligence-driven analytics company aiming to “revolutionise cloud-based virtual network management” and helping telecoms companies to lower their capital expenditure.
• Transwap is a fintech company that helps businesses to trade globally, in its own words helping to move money “faster, cheaper and safer”.  The company recently relocated to Edinburgh from Singapore.

Steve Ewing, Director of Entrepreneurship at Bayes Centre and EIE21 lead, said:

“We have a particularly strong set of companies pitching this year and that, coupled with our ever more flexible virtual environment, persuaded us to allow each of them more pitching time. It was hard to pick the ten who get the opportunity to make the extended pitch, but for all thirty-five companies on the day, EIE provides a platform to get onto the radar of investors from across the globe and make connections that can lead to investment.”

Last month, the team behind EIE, who are based at the Bayes Centre, University of Edinburgh, launched this year’s EIE Scottish Startup Survey, the first of its kind to examine the Scottish startup ecosystem.  This year’s survey asks startups across Scotland about the main challenges faced and opportunities achieved in a year characterised by the ongoing Covid pandemic.  

EIE21 will be announcing the keynote speaker lineup later this month.

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. 

About EIE21 and Bayes Centre

EIE21, which is run by the University of Edinburgh’s Bayes Centre in partnership with the DDI (Data-Driven Innovation) initiative and supported by Scottish Enterprise, is a year-round programme highlighted by a day of pitching to investors from across the globe.