Left to right: Paul Wilson, Gregor Aikman and Evelyn McDonald
FILAMENT ANNOUNCES SCOTLAND’S FIRST SMART THINGS ACCELERATOR CENTRE the accelerator programme will have access to world-class IoT R&D facilities within the Filament PD offices in Skypark.
Earlier this year, Scotland’s first Smart Things Accelerator Centre launched, with the Filament STAC accelerator aiming to jumpstart the nation’s Internet of Things (IoT) sector headed by global leaders from tech powerhouses including Dyson, Wistron, BlackBerry and Plexus Corp. The 18-month programme will support 10 companies in each cohort, and is supported by a world-class tech partnership ecosystem in Scotland with all key products and services required for IoT companies to succeed. Filament STAC, which commences at Skypark in Glasgow in October, is underpinned by an industry-government partnership which will see Scottish Enterprise support the first phase of growth alongside Filament, Plexus Corp, a global leader in complex design, manufacturing, supply chain and aftermarket services, and CENSIS. Applications and pitches took place September with the first cohort starting in October. Cohort companies on
The 3-year Scottish targets are for the creation of more than 25 IoT companies supporting around 750 jobs, reporting revenue in the region of £750 million, with cohort companies raising investment in excess of £100 million. Filament STAC is partly modelled on a Canadian programme in Ontario, Canada the Accelerator Centre in Waterloo - that has supported around 650 start-ups that have created over 4,000 jobs, and the centre’s founder Tim Ellis has been lined up as a consultant to the Scottish project. Filament STAC will also build on the IoT foundations already put in place by CENSIS, Scotland’s Innovation Centre for sensing, imaging and IoT technologies, and Glasgow-headquartered product design firm Filament. Filament STAC CEO Paul Wilson said: “We believe Scotland has the potential to be a main player in smart, connected devices and moving ahead with the accelerator gives us a
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real chance to gain a leading position in an IoT sector forecast to reach $1.5 trillion over the next few years. Beringar and R3-IoT are bright stars in Scotland with huge potential, but we need more and STAC will make the scale-up journey quicker and easier.” “We have great talent here in Scotland which we export incredibly well to leading global tech companies. We evidently do less well in producing international Scottish tech companies of scale. Filament STAC will address this by developing highly ambitious Scottish IoT companies that will be ready to go out and compete on the global stage.”
www.stac.ac | filamentpd.com
