One Year On at the Alba Innovation Centre and occupancy levels already at 60%!
18 of Scotland’s leading high growth potential companies have selected the Alba Innovation Centre to locate their new innovative technology business.
Alba Innovation Centre, which opened its doors to Scotland’s innovative new companies in the east of Scotland in December 2006 is showing all the signs of a highly successful incubator.
Following in the footsteps of its’ sister incubator, Hillington Park Innovation Centre, Alba is already 60% occupied with a number of companies looking to move in over the next 6 months. There have been a number of key highlights along the way.
eoLogic have developed a revolutionary predictive software quality tool, eoSense. It reduces the risk and cost of Java EE development and deployment. Their product is used across Europe and they have recently begun expansion into the US with the opening of a Sales Office in Boston. eoSense has recently been sold to the Minnesota Department of Revenue and their US expansion has been supported by the Alba Innovation Centre and Scottish Development International (SDI). eoLogic are funded by the Archangel Investment syndicate based in Edinburgh and are supported by Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government.
Another key company who has now graduated from the Centre, Oligon Ltd, was acquired by Wolfson Microelectronics plc for £2.9M in cash and loan notes in January 2007. Established in 2005 by Mark Hesketh and Dr Richard Laming, Oligon quickly established itself as a global business. Oligon designed and manufactured a new type of integrated semiconductor “Active ICs” combining MEMS based transducers with CMOS electronics. The deal with Wolfson allowed both companies to leverage their technology synergies and bring to market an expanded range of new and innovative audio products for the consumer market.
Catalise changed their business model to establish joint ventures with large companies, who were looking for someone to develop the back-end to their websites for a share of the profits. A good example of this was the Smartycars.com venture which was a deal between Catalise and SMG to operate and market a online automobile marketplace for car dealerships, where Catalise own 30% of the business and SMG own the other 70%. A real entrepreneur, Bill Smart, founder of Catalise is always looking for new opportunities and ways to grow and diversify the business. He is already considering a new marketing strategy for Smartyhomes and Smartyjobs and they have set up the "Smartycars Challenge" car race which will commence this month. A recent PWC study estimated the Smartycars business to be worth a capital value of £50-£85million in 5 years time - not bad for a small Scottish based forward thinking company!
Enviroliance, formerly known as 3C Environmental, moved into the Centre in December 2006. Formerly an environmental and building management consultancy, the Alba Innovation Centre advisory team challenged them to be more innovative with their business model, which resulted in them developing MoST, their technology solution to monitor environmental and building management processes in real-time. This technology has now been trialled in a pilot with Forth Electrical Services (FES) and used as part of the Forth Ports deal which Enviroliance has recently been awarded. The business has already doubled its turnover in the last year and is currently looking for additional funding to increase the team and develop their technology solution further.
To highlight the key successes of Alba Innovation Centre since it opened its doors in December 2007, Mike Southon, the Beermat Entrepreneur and Imran Khand, CEO of Picsel Technologies will speak at an event to be held in the Alba Innovation Centre on Thursday 1st May. The focus of the event is on innovation and entrepreneurship and the two speakers will highlight their experiences of building up businesses, sharing their highs and lows along the way. This aims to be a high profile event with an audience of both public and private sector individuals, all looking to find out more about the success of the Alba Innovation Centre. A series of workshops focussing on finance and funding, sales strategy and legal and IP issues are also planned for the afternoon.
Tom Ogilvie, CEO of Innovation Centres (Scotland) Ltd which manages the Alba Innovation Centre and the highly successful sister innovation centre, Hillington Park Innovation Centre said, “To be so far ahead of target at this stage indicates the calibre of companies setting up new innovative businesses in the east coast of Scotland and the attraction for these companies to locate in the Alba Innovation Centre. We are delighted with the companies we currently have in the Centre and are working hard with these companies to ensure they achieve the ambitious growth targets they have set. This event aims to crystallise the key achievements of the Centre so far and focuses on the ambitious plans we have for the future growth of Alba Innovation Centre”.
