An Aberdeen health food company and a Caithness gin distillery won £50,000 each as part of a competition for Scottish businesses.
Pulsetta Foods and Dunnet Bay Distillers both got a financial boost at the ScotEdge awards which took place in Edinburgh.
The awards were given to the new businesses which were best able to demonstrate their ability to grow and bring valuable turnover and jobs into the Scottish economy.
A panel of some of Scotland’s leading business people awarded the financial support packages to 16 Scottish companies, including Dr Karsten Karcher as he seeks to grow his business making gluten-free and healthy alternatives to baked goods.
The winners to a panel of judges in front of a live audience of 300 people and then faced a Q&A of nine minutes. Sir Tom Hunter, The Hunter Foundation; Alison Rose, Royal Bank of Scotland; Bill Morrow, Angel’s Den; Kevin Dorren, Diet Chef and Eleanor Mitchell, Scottish Enterprise were the judges.
The awards follow on from four previous rounds, which saw 69 Scottish businesses awarded funds. To the end of September 2014 this investment has generated 207 jobs and £4.25million investment.
Evelyn McDonald, chief executive of ScotEdge said: “Pulsetta Foods impressed the judging panel with their vision and entrepreneurial spirit. Their business is capable of significant growth and we look forward to helping them achieve their ambitions”.
Mr Karcher said: “This means tremendous acceleration for our business. It means we can do what we are doing but faster and better.”
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “Since the launch of Scotland CAN DO, we have created a platform to allow our ambitious entrepreneurs to excel. This has been driven-forward by the collective impact of public, private and third sector partners.
“ScotEdge exemplifies what can be achieved with a collaborative approach and shared ambition of becoming a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation.”
The awards were supported by a number of partners and ambassadors including Harper Macleod, Johnston Carmichael, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Samsung who were on hand to offer free support to Scotland’s up and coming entrepreneurs.