Investment into Scottish companies grew 108% from Q4 of 2024 to Q1 of 2025, according to The State of Investment in Scotland report from Beauhurst.
“Scotland has seen a strong start to 2025 in terms of investment, with a significant surge in funding despite a slight dip in deal volume,” said Beauhurst.
“While the number of deals recorded in Q1 2025 declined by 6% compared to the previous quarter, the total value of investment into Scottish companies soared by an impressive 108%.
“Overall, Scotland captured 7% of all deals completed across the UK in Q1 2025.
“Since the beginning of 2025 until 2 May 2025, when the data for this article was collected, Scottish companies have had £211m invested across 99 equity funding rounds.”
According to Beauhurst, Scotland’s biggest deals of 2025 so far are: Moray orbital launch firm Orbex, Glasgow digital commodities marketplace BLK, Edinburgh electricity grid deeptech Ionate, North Lanarkshire biopharmaceutical firm EnteroBiotix, West Lothian underwater and underground wireless company CSignum, Edinburgh biopharmaceutical firm Lario Therapeutics, Glasgow deeptech Neuranics, Perth & Kinross environmental tech company Agricarbon UK, Glasgow diagnostics firm Dxcover, and Edinburgh cloud-based logistics company Podfather.
Examining the 99 funding rounds, Beauhurst said: “Across those companies, 26% were in the application software industry, the proportion of any industry.
“However, looking at all UK funded companies in the same time span, application software represents 48% of the total, indicating that Scotland has a wider range of industries that are gaining investment compared to the UK.
“Electronics hardware companies received the second most deals in Scotland (18% of the total) with 17 companies in this industry raising equity funding.
“This is reflected in our list of Scotland’s biggest deals of 2025 so far, where a number of companies deal in electronics hardware.
“This includes Neuranics; a company that’s developing highly sensitive magnetic sensing technology designed for advanced wearables, medical devices, and intuitive human-machine interaction.
“Just behind this is renewable energy with 12 companies (12.4%), reflecting the growing importance of cleantech in the UK and in Scotland’s economy, as the country continues to position itself as a leader in the transition to net-zero.”
The report said Venture stage companies have led the way in Scotland’s funding activity since the start of the year.
It said this contrasts with the broader UK picture for the quarter, where deals into Venture stage companies trailed behind Seed stage activity. This suggests that, in Scotland, investors are showing a stronger appetite for slightly larger, later-stage businesses compared to the UK overall.
Scotland’s Seed stage companies also performed strongly in Q1 2025, being the second-most prevalent stage of growth in companies that secured investment.
“In our Q1 2025 report of all UK investment, we saw an interesting trend where early-stage startups continued to attract steady, if modest, funding — while later-stage companies raised fewer rounds, but much larger sums,” said Beauhurst.
“And this is reflected in the Scottish investment market too. We’re seeing a two-speed market: one where early-stage funding remains active but lean, while mid-to-late stage companies are securing fewer but significantly larger rounds.”
Since the start of 2025, 83% of funded Scottish companies have all-male founding teams. Just under 10% had an equal gender split in the founding team — and only 3.7% had an all-female founding team.
“The figures are low, and historical data shows that the percentage of all-female founding teams is declining too,” said Beauhurst.
“In Q4 2024 6.5% of funded Scottish companies had an all-female founding team, and 11.3% had an equal gender split.
“If we look back even further, to 2024 as a whole, we can see an even wider gap. In 2024, 7.2% of funded Scottish companies had an all-female founding team, 9.6% was an equal gender split, and 79% was all-male.”