“Both routes put founders directly in front of people who can accelerate their growth” – Jennifer Forbes Iannolo, CodeBase
The Scottish government’s programme for scaling technology start-ups is backing tech founders on two major investor missions this month.
Techscaler, which is run by CodeBase, is funding Scottish founders to attend the Blue Earth Summit in London and the InvestHer Summit in Paris. Both events will provide company founders with the opportunity to raise their international profile, build investor relationships and accelerate international growth.
Blue Earth Summit 2026 takes place at Woolwich Works, London from this Wednesday, October 14 to Friday 16. The summit - one of Europe’s largest gatherings for sustainability-led businesses and investment - will see more than 5,000 attendees, including 1,000 investors, discuss the future economy, from climate and nature to business and capital.
The Techscaler cohort attending Blue Earth Summit, which will be led by Techscaler entrepreneur in residence Claudia Freigang, includes: Amandeep Kalra, chief executive and co-founder of GreenFlip, an AI platform modelling residential heat loss and solar to unlock net zero retrofits and cut fuel poverty; Pavel Grachev, founder of Heat21, a start-up that recycles waste heat from green compute mining; and Efemena Boro, director at Borku UK, a digital marketplace driving economic inclusion by connecting African and Caribbean businesses with customers across the UK.
Meanwhile, the InvestHer Summit 2026 takes place in Paris between October 27 and 28, with the global action event aiming to get one million women entrepreneurs funded by 2030. The summit programme is split between access to capital and market, panels, fireside chats and breakout sessions.
The Techscaler cohort participating in the summit includes: Clare Daly, chief executive and founder of Dynamigo, which nurtures learning potential through an education technology platform offering personalised learning experiences and real time feedback; Natalie Garry, chief executive and founder of danceSing, which combines movement, music and mindfulness to improve wellbeing for older adults; and Lesley Thomson, chief executive and co-founder of Nudge Innovations, which designs” real world solutions for reuse”.
Jennifer Forbes Iannolo, vice-president of business acceleration at CodeBase, said: “InvestHer is built for founders who are actively raising. Through direct investor access, a marketplace to drive commercial leads, and dedicated on the ground support, women founders get a structured route to capital and international partners who are ready to back ambitious companies.
“Whether the goal is connecting with climate-focused investors at Blue Earth Summit or, for women founders, closing a raise at InvestHer, both routes put founders directly in front of people who can accelerate their growth,” she added.
Techscaler is the Scottish government’s membership programme for creating, developing and scaling tech start-ups and is run by CodeBase.
Techscaler also has a Singapore programme commencing on October 24, and a Hong Kong programme taking place from November 14. At the end of September, at CodeBase in Edinburgh, founders selected for the Singapore programme joined alumni from previous cohorts at a roundtable with Nik Mehta, British High Commissioner to Singapore.
This summer, half of the firms polled for Bank of Scotland’s business barometer said they had stepped up spending on new tech in recent months.