Four Scottish firms set to achieve billion-dollar valuations

Four Scottish companies are set to achieve valuations of more than one billion US dollars (£707m), according to new analysis.

Amphista Therapeutics in Motherwell, Roslin Technologies in Edinburgh, Interactive Investor in Glasgow and NuCana BioMed in Edinburgh have been identified as fast-growing companies which could breach the landmark figure.

The budding unicorns – private tech companies valued at one billion dollars or more – would follow Scottish firms such as BrewDog, FanDuel and Skyscanner.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said: “With three unicorns and four fast-growing scaleups, the innovation and creativity taking place in Scotland is truly groundbreaking.

“Tech companies across the country are transforming how we live from companies democratising investment to developing pioneering medicine.

“The UK Government is dedicated to supporting investment in tech in Scotland.

“Our recent commitment to create five new innovation hubs in fields such as robotics and space technology means the industry has a bright future ahead.”

Since 2010, the UK has experienced a sustained increase in the venture capital flowing into the tech sector.

Scottish start-ups last year attracted £345m in venture capital investment, despite the pandemic and a recent report recognised that 13,000 digital tech job opportunities were created every year in Scotland.

Amphista Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company creating therapeutics that harness the body’s natural processes to remove disease-causing proteins.

Roslin Technologies is developing innovations to make the agriculture and animal health sectors more sustainable.

Interactive Investor is an online investment platform and NuCana BioMed is a pharmaceutical company developing medicines that address significant unmet needs.

Together, these businesses employ more than 500 people.

The analysis was carried out by Dealroom.co and the Digital Economy Council.