Pay for the proof
Investors want evidence that a product works, that customers will pay and that the plan holds, yet producing it costs money and months most founders do not have, so we fund that stage rather than wait for it. Digital TRUST taught us that early money changes outcomes, and that a single late payment can sink a team.
We start at idea and pre-seed, with researchers, graduates, people leaving established businesses and founders moving to Scotland.
The founder offer
Founders get proper incentives, with safe, simple, founder-friendly equity and very simple intellectual property (IP) terms, so that a team keeps what it builds and knows the cost before it starts.
Everything is written down before work begins, from what the team gets and who is accountable to when funds and resources land. Teams ready for capital agree admission and first investment together, while earlier teams get defined support and a route to that decision.
The environment itself offers workspace and compute in a shared Edinburgh base, specialists on call and other founders down the corridor, alongside people who can test a product, open customer doors and ready a team 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, and its evidence was cited by the House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee, while 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 was investors with the judgement and capital to take companies through the next stage, which is why this is not a renewal of Digital TRUST but the addition of the investors it lacked.
More founders reaching a first round
Scotland recorded 114 first-time equity deals in 2025, up from 81 the year before but still short of the 2021 peak, and we want that number to keep rising.
Edinburgh base, no empty building
We will take shared or leased space, sized for the first cohort, inside Scotland's fintech cluster and seek FinTech Scotland's backing, while 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 in which every pound invested in a TRUST 2030 company is made up of 30p from public finance and 70p from investors, which means public money shares the risk and investors have a reason to back founders earlier than they otherwise would.
What investors get
Investors get early access to supported teams in AI and the digital economy before they raise elsewhere, with thirty pence of public capital alongside every seventy they invest, founder relationships and technical expertise through us and demand testing through industry partners, while shared support is publicly funded so their money goes into companies, not overheads.
In return, investors put their own capital at risk and hold agreed rights to equity returns, and the investment decisions are theirs.
Additionality, measured
Additionality means investments that would not otherwise happen, and we will measure it by 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. We will also track company outcomes, including customers, further funding, jobs in Scotland, research and graduate placements, and teams that close stay 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, which is a matter for negotiation, and anything preferential would need its own agreement.
Lightweight governance, no strings attached
Investors make the investment decisions, while public partners agree the mandate at the outset and see the results without sitting on individual deals. A small independent board and a small team run the programme and report once a year on outcomes, with 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.
Long-termist institution building
We are designing a model that keeps working after public support steps back, sustained by 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
What we ask for now is a conversation rather than 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.