Techscaler Programme 2022-2024: early evaluation - executive summary

Techscaler Programme delivery

Tailored and flexible programme delivery

Over the first year two full years of Techscaler (to the end of December 2024), activity and support was designed and developed across the programme’s three strategic pillars. CodeBase, through the Techscaler Programme, continues to provide accessible support to entrepreneurs and founders from all over Scotland to:

• strengthen entrepreneurial skills and mindsets.
• create a supportive environment where founders (and their teams) can build better startups faster.
• enable businesses to improve their growth prospects.

A key feature of the programme’s support is that it has been tailored for those at every stage of starting and scaling a tech business, see Figure 2 — with enhanced levels of support available as founders/startups progress along their startup journey. Techscaler community and events activities, including those delivered in partnership with other ecosystem partners, are delivered throughout the year.

Figure 2 is a diagram showing how Techscaler support offerings align with different startup stages.

Startup Basics and Startup First Steps apply during the ideation and early‑stage phases.

Startup Next Steps continues into growth.

Mentorship and funding‑readiness support run from early stage through growth and into scaling.

Reforge applies at the growth and scaling stages.

Source: Techscaler Annual Report 2024.

Another key feature of the programme’s support is that it has been designed to be flexible and adapt to members’ changing needs and circumstances.

A growing membership

Techscaler membership numbers got off to a very strong start in 2023 and membership has continued to grow in 2024. Individual Techscaler membership stands at 1,411 members in 2024 — an increase of 57% since 2023.

Over one-third (36%) of members are female — this is a good level of representation and is higher than the industry average where 20% of SME employers are women-led (defined as a business with the majority of the combined total number of owners, partners and directors being female).

Techscaler is a pan-Scotland programme — the offer has been purposefully designed to reach all areas including those on Scotland’s island communities. Over two-thirds (69%) of the Techscaler membership are based in the central belt — this is, however, where the main population, business and academic bases are located.

The majority (60%) of Techscaler members at the time of becoming a member are at a very early-stage of their startup development journey — that is at the ideation stage or early-stage. The remainder (40%) are either at the growth or scaling stages.

While companies in later stages (growth and scaling) have steadily joined Techscaler over the first two years of delivery, the most significant increase in members has come from very early-stage founders. In the early years of programme delivery, the Scottish Government and CodeBase considered this approach necessary to fill and widen the funnel of early-stage companies entering the Scottish tech economy.

Programme key facts and figures

This section looks to highlight a few specific examples of what has been delivered by the programme to the end of December 2024, with more detail provided in the main evaluation report.

Pillar one — build core startup and scaleup skills

Education programmes

The Techscaler education programmes, such as Startup Basics, Startup First Steps and Startup Next Steps have been developed by CodeBase to provide startup and scaleup founders with the skills, knowledge, and networks needed to grow their businesses. Delivered by experienced founders and industry operators, the programmes combine self-paced online courses with cohort-based workshops and hybrid formats to ensure accessibility and peer learning across Scotland’s ecosystem.

• 742 members enrolled in education courses by the end of 2024.
• 52% of all members enrolled in education programmes by the end of 2024.

Techscaler has also partnered with Reforge, a global scaleup education platform who run a range of programmes, to help established startups and scaleups grow beyond product and market fit. Scaling members have access to advanced Silicon Valley playbooks. While also open to founders, Reforge is ideal for scaleups that would benefit from upskilling senior leaders or key staff through structured learning.

• over 200 members from 50+ companies supported by Reforge by the end of 2024.

Overall, the education programmes have demonstrated strong demand and have been iteratively refined (and new courses have been developed for delivery in 2025) based on participant feedback to better align with founder needs and ecosystem development.

Mentorship programme

Mentoring support via the Techscaler Programme has been in strong demand and is highly valued. Mentees have sought advice on a range of topics, in particular —product market fit, investment readiness/fundraising, product refinement, growth strategies, and building teams.

• a pool of 150 mentors.
• 45% of Techscaler members have received mentoring support to end of 2024.
• 2,300+ mentoring sessions delivered.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) for mentorship remains high at 90 which is excellent.

Pillar two — foster social infrastructure development

Hub network

By the end of 2024, Techscaler had six regions with physical hubs and eight pop-up hubs. Edinburgh and Stirling are the only physical hub sites operated directly by CodeBase (and pre-dated the Techscaler Programme) — all others are operated by partners.

The regional hubs typically comprise a mix of hot-desking, co-working, private office space, meeting space, and/or event space. Techscaler members who are not also hub tenants may be able to pay for meeting rooms and event spaces directly with the hub space, but the arrangement varies by hub partner. Hub occupancy data for Techscaler members was not available for those hubs managed by external partners.

CodeBase does not incur a cost for running the physical spaces (other than for the Edinburgh hub). Rather the main cost associated with the hub network is staffing — that is, for the Engagement Teams, whose role is to respond to the specific needs in their region and to build community through regular engagement with founders.

Figure 3 shows a map of Scotland showing the locations of Techscaler hubs, pop‑up hubs, and team hubs.

Techscaler hubs are located in Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Stirling.

Pop‑up hubs are shown in Dumfries and several central‑belt locations.

A team hub is also shown in Dumfries.

The map includes a small inset of the Shetland Islands.

Source: Techscaler Annual Report 2024.

Note: The Dumfries hub was only confirmed in November 2025.

Community and events

Techscaler Programme community and events activity seeks to connect people/ founders at all stages of the startup journey as well as across the ecosystem in Scotland and beyond. Together with the hub networks, community and events supported via the programme look to provide founders and their teams access to the physical and social infrastructure required to develop and grow successful startups. Over 950 events were held to the end of December 2024 (8,500 attendees) and this included a mix of CodeBase/Techscaler Programme hosted events and those hosted in partnership with other organisations.

Pillar three — increase investor connectivity and internationalisation

CodeBase, via the Techscaler Programme, has also sought to foster actionable connections between founders and investors, creating accessible funding pathways for high potential companies, offering global opportunities through international residencies, and hosting investor events in Scotland.

International connectivity

Some examples of international connectivity activity supported via the Techscaler Programme has included:

• hosting delegates from other countries in Scotland — for example, CodeBase hosted a delegation of representatives from Singapore in 2023 to give founders the opportunity to engage with Scotland’s Trade and Investment Envoy to Singapore.
• international pop-up hubs.
• presenting and speaking at the global tech events and forums — for example, at the World Incubators Forum (Shanghai).
• attending leading startup and scaleup events and conferences in America, Asia, and Europe.

International programmes

International programmes have sought to engage with mature tech ecosystems like Silicon Valley and Singapore — the approach has been to help embed and integrate founders within these tech ecosystems for extended periods.

CodeBase (in partnership with others, for example Scottish Development International) has provided opportunities for three cohorts of Scotland-based founders (35 unique companies involved to the end of 2024), to:

• work on their startups directly from these locations.
• broaden their ambition and mindset.
• foster meaningful connections with local networks, and meet investors, peers, and potential customers.
• implement key changes and share insights with their team on their return.

Fundraising

Data on capital raised by Techscaler members as detailed in the Techscaler Annual Report 2024 is provided below.

The £118 million capital raised by member businesses since the Techscaler Programme began (to the end of December 2024) is based on the investment figures reported by Beauhurst, which is based on a combination of account filings and announced raises. However, it is not clear to what extent these impacts are fully or partially attributable to the programme.

• £54.1 million capital raised by member businesses by the end 2023.
• £63.3 million capital raised by member businesses during 2024.
• a total of £118 million capital raised by member businesses over the first two years of the programme.

Other notable achievements

While the Techscaler Programme is still in its relative infancy, the programme is well-regarded. Notable achievements include:

• CodeBase’s mentorship programme was ranked 6^th in Europe's Leading Startup Hubs (Financial Times, March 2024).
• at an early stage in its delivery period, the Techscaler Programme has been recognised as Sifted’s 13th best first founder community in Europe (August 2025; albeit outside the timeframe of this early evaluation).

Programme funding and expenditure

A budget of circa £42.4 million (excluding VAT) has been provided by the Scottish Government to CodeBase for the Techscaler Programme for the five-year contract period. A fixed fee of circa £1.8 million (excluding VAT) (4% of the total budget) was agreed for the mobilisation period and was not subject to variation.

By March 2025, approximately £22.8 million (excluding VAT) has been spent, representing 54% of the total budget. Available breakdowns indicate that staff costs remain the largest expenditure, followed by the management fee.

Expenditure to date is in line with expectations. While this evaluation is not an audit of expenditure, we note the following caveats:

• there are no formal targets for expenditure. Instead, financial outlooks, budget updates, and variation proposals are reviewed quarterly by the Scottish Government. This remains, in our view, an effective approach — allowing for flexibility without imposing arbitrary annual spending targets.
• both the Scottish Government and CodeBase have strengthened financial reporting and oversight processes (for example, regarding eligible spend) since programme inception. However, in looking at the period to December 2024 we consider that there is still room for improvement, particularly around clarity and granularity of reporting as this would support both Scottish Government and CodeBase to better understand where expenditure was occurring in terms of market segmentation.

The Scottish Government is leading changes to financial reporting to strengthen contract management, improve transparency, and enable more detailed evaluation.

Lessons learned

• Segmentation needed refinement — and CodeBase has recognised this. Early segmentation was too loose — clearer, evidence‑based criteria are essential for matching founders to the right support at the right time.
• Hybrid delivery is essential for national reach — hybrid models are not just convenient, they are essential for equitable access for a pan‑Scotland programme like Techscaler.
• Education programmes could be timed and targeted more precisely —education needs to be modular, flexible, and delivered at the moment of need.
• Mentorship is the programme’s strongest pull factor and is the anchor of the programme — maintaining quality, diversity, and matching accuracy is vital.
• Regional disparities reflect ecosystem maturity, not programme failure — physical hubs shape engagement patterns and complementary digital strategies are needed to avoid reinforcing geographic inequalities.
• Later‑stage founders require more specialised, targeted support — growth and scaling companies benefit most from bespoke, high‑value interventions rather than generalist education.
• Data quality and consistency need ongoing improvement — robust, consistent data collection is essential for monitoring impact and informing future programme design.
• Progression pathways must be clearer — the next phase should focus on tracking progression and ensuring founders move through the funnel with purpose and support.
• Iteration is a core strength but communicating the “why” behind changes will build trust and clarity.