North stars: Aberdeen's tech ecosystem is feeling festive, by Erikka Askeland

Baby, it’s cold outside. But the welcome is warm inside the ONE Tech Hub in Aberdeen which is hosting a festive social for members of the local “ecosystem”.

A technology manager up from Edinburgh remarks that the place has more buzz than the same time last year and it’s hard not to agree. 

The lofty space was once occupied by Gray’s School of Art. It reopened to host a new, state-of-the-art facility in 2019 following a £1.5 million refurbishment funded by Opportunity North East (ONE), the city region’s private/public economic development agency. 

ONE is backed by Sir Ian Wood, the pre-eminent oil and gas industry billionaire and now one of the city’s most prominent philanthropists.

At the Hub’s “Tech the Halls” shindig, there are some of the 21 businesses and partners based here.

One of them is Marcin Walaszczyk, founder of fintech firm Zipzero. His recent decision to relocate from the tech hothouse of London to Aberdeen following a lockdown staycation in Scotland seems like a sign of things to come for the Granite City. His consumer data rebate company is now seeking recruits from among the Hub’s supportive digital talent pool. He expects he’ll have 1 million subscribers next year.

Paul Clelland, also based at the ONE Tech Hub and wearing a festive jumper, is the head of North East Scotland regional engagement for CodeBase and its tech startup booster programme, Techscaler. 

His remit extends beyond the city lights of Aberdeen as he brings tidings of growth support to entrepreneurs across the region, from Fraserburgh, Peterhead, Huntly and down to Banchory and Stonehaven.

While over 500 start-ups and scale-ups are involved with Techscaler nationwide, Insch-based Herd Advance, which has developed an automated cattle monitoring system, is supported through CodeBase’s AgriTech Bridge collaboration with Barclay Eagle Labs.

Another Techscaler member company is Rooser, an innovative seafood trading platform co-founded by accountant and fisherman’s son, Joel Watt.

ONE and Scottish Enterprise estimate that the tech cluster in the north-east now comprises more than 300 companies, employing around 4,400 people and turning over more than £520 million a year.

Nevertheless, Aberdeen is still an oil and gas town, albeit one focused on turning its expertise in deep water and subsea engineering to cleaner offshore wind and hydrogen.

“Energy tech” also dominates the city’s ecosystem, with 42% of companies, 59% of employees and the same cut of sector turnover, according to the ONE analysis.

The Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC), another high-tech space backed by Sir Ian, is just across town from the Hub. It was allocated a £190 million chunk of the ten-year Aberdeen City Region Deal in 2016.

It still has cash to splash – although not as much as recent years of profit taking in the oil and gas production sector might have suggested. 

Tech is now a serious focus – its recent Open Innovation funding competition distributed £9 million to nine organisations focused on developing and deploying data and digital technologies that enable the delivery of the UK’s net zero ambitions, particularly robotics and AI.

The traditional oil and gas sector is notorious for keeping its technology developments in silos of commercial secrecy. But like its neighbours at the Hub, NZTC is helping the sector warm up to the opportunities of the ecosystem.