Steven MORRIS’S view that the funding of an invention is as important for a tech start-up as the invention itself is bound to divide opinion, but the frequency with which tech companies raise equity funding would suggest he is at least partly right.
Whether capital intensive or not, it is a challenge to commercialise any new technology. For those who achieve this, realising their full potential can be even more challenging.
Therefore, many firms out there will welcome Mr Morris’s plans to launch, most probably, a venture capital trust to back Scottish tech firms ready to scale-up.
Interesting, too, was his observation that Scotland’s investment culture is far more mature than those in the Far East, where innovation in technology is highly prevalent. It served to further highlight the role of investors in Scotland’s tech scene.
ESM Investments, which was established by Mr Morris in 2011, has funds under management of £8 million, from a collection of 80 members of the tech community.
In pursuing a target of £25m to invest in six high-growth potential businesses, ESM is scaling up itself, it would seem.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here