NESTA invests in Scottish technology firms and new creative businesses

New NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) Chief Executive Jonathan Kestenbaum visits Scotland today to unveil a series of investments and initiatives designed to drive innovation in Scotland.

NESTA is announcing a range of initiatives designed to have impact at a key stage of the innovation process: through early stage business support and seed investment. These include:

· Two investments worth a total of £200,000 to young technology companies in Scotland. This injection of early stage seed capital is designed to help commercialise promising ideas for new products and services.

· Details of two graduates from Scotland who have been recruited into NESTA’s Academy, a mould-breaking business support and growth initiative that offers seed funding of up to £35,000 to establish new creative businesses.

Jonathan Kestenbaum, NESTA Chief Executive, said: “Access to the right sort of early stage seed capital and business support is essential to grow businesses of scale, driven by innovation. NESTA’s investment at the earliest stage is designed to ensure that each business has every chance of meeting its high growth potential and adding real value to the Scottish economy. Our involvement does not stop at finance, we build a system of mentoring and business support around each investee company that creates the networks needed for innovations to realise their commercial potential.”