Pay for the proof
Investors want evidence: a product that works, customers who pay, a plan that holds. Producing it costs money and months that most founders do not have, so we fund that stage instead of waiting for it. Digital TRUST taught us that early money changes outcomes and that one late payment can sink a team.
We start at idea and pre-seed: researchers, graduates, people leaving established businesses, founders moving to Scotland.
The founder offer
An environment with proper founder incentives: safe, simple, founder-friendly equity and very simple intellectual property (IP) terms, so a team keeps what it builds and knows the cost before it starts.
Everything is written down before work begins: what the team gets, who is accountable, when funds and resources land. Teams ready for capital agree admission and first investment together; earlier teams get defined support and a route to that decision.
Then the environment itself: workspace and compute in a shared Edinburgh base, specialists on call, other founders down the corridor, and people who can test a product, open customer doors and get a team ready for its next round.
What we start with
Digital TRUST's Future Payments Challenge funded development at Stableport and Stabledrop. The Centre took part in the Bank of England's DLT Innovation Challenge. Its evidence was cited by the House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee. Scotland's Roadmap for Digital Assets and Tokenisation gives us a first market.
We bring founder relationships, technical depth and a market. What the Centre never had is investors with the judgement and capital to take companies through the next stage. This is not a renewal; it is the missing half.
More founders reaching a first round
Scotland recorded 114 first-time equity deals in 2025. Up from 81 in 2024, still short of 2021. We want that number higher.
Edinburgh base, no empty building
Shared or leased space, sized for the first cohort, inside Scotland's fintech cluster; we will seek FinTech Scotland's backing. Technical work goes to whichever university or specialist fits the project, in Edinburgh or along the corridor to Glasgow.
A long-term public-private funding model
We believe public money should go only where it changes a private decision. So we propose a simple split. For every pound invested in a TRUST 2030 company, 30p comes from public finance and 70p from investors. Scotland has skin in the game, and investors have a reason to back founders earlier than they otherwise would.
What investors get
Early access to supported teams in AI and the digital economy, before they raise elsewhere. Thirty pence of public capital alongside every seventy they invest. Founder relationships and technical expertise through us, demand testing through industry partners, and shared support paid for publicly, so investors' money goes into companies rather than overheads.
In return, investors put their own capital at risk and hold agreed rights to equity returns. The investment decisions are theirs.
Additionality, measured
Investments that would not otherwise happen. We measure it: whether programme support changed the decision, investor capital per public pound (the target is £2.33), investors new to the programme, repeat investment, and whether investors keep investing once public support steps back. Then company outcomes: customers, further funding, jobs in Scotland, research, graduate placements. Teams that close are in the record too.
The terms are open
The public 30p could invest on commercial, equal terms, as Scottish Enterprise's Co-investment Fund does, or on softer concessional terms. That is for negotiation, and anything preferential needs its own agreement.
Lightweight governance, no strings attached
Investors make the investment decisions. Public partners agree the mandate at the outset and see the results; they do not sit on individual deals. A small independent board, a small team running the programme, one annual report on outcomes. No complex conditions on founders or investors.
Before launch we settle the legal structure, founder terms and conflict handling, and agreements set rights to any returns.
Who we want to hear from
- Investors.
- Funds, angels and corporates who have backed early teams and would shape selection and founder terms with us before capital is discussed.
- Public partners.
- Scottish Enterprise first, as the intended anchor funder, then others in government who want to test what public support could secure.
- University and industry.
- You could bring technical support, facilities or customer trials to a first cohort.
Built to outlast the grant
We are designing a model that keeps working after public support steps back: investors who come back, founders who back the next cohort, and earned income that lowers the call on public money. We plan as if none of it is guaranteed, and nothing launches until funding, premises and support are in place.
The ask
A conversation, not a decision. An initial proposal goes to Scottish Enterprise by the end of 2026, so if this is worth building, tell us now and we will cost the first cohort and shape the terms with you.