Round One, Scotland’s pre-seed investment readiness programme, has opened applications for its 2026 cohort, with PXN Ventures and Cooper Parry joining as new partners for the second year of the programme. Applications close on Friday 21 August 2026.
The eight-week programme is delivered by co-founders Alex Rowe and Bruce Walker in partnership with Dentons and RBS NatWest Accelerator, and funded through the Ecosystem Fund. It is open to Scotland-based founders with a live minimum viable product who have not yet raised equity investment and are preparing to raise within the next 12 months. Delivery is primarily in person across Glasgow and Edinburgh, hosted at RBS NatWest Accelerator hubs.
What has changed for 2026
PXN Ventures is described as the largest venture capital fund in the north of the UK, with £670m of assets under management. Cooper Parry is described as a fast-growing accountancy and advisory firm expanding its presence in Scotland.
Confirmed 2026 investor speakers include Eka Ventures, Ascension and Singular. Additional guest speakers announced by Alex Rowe on LinkedIn include Piers Lawford of Fuel Ventures, Alex Heerema of Ascension, Maria Rotilu of Openseed VC, and Marwa Ebrahim of Haatch.
Alumni track record
Ten founders completed the inaugural 2025 programme. First-year cohort participants named in Herald Scotland’s coverage include Ember, Desana, FreeAgent and Valla.
Alan Mathieson, founder of Fesutibaru, a tech start-up building the digital backbone of festivals, said:
“We were successful in securing £750,000 and the support from Bruce and Alex at Round One was excellent. Certainly, it helped us get our ducks in a row and be better prepared for due diligence.”
Partner view
Alastair Moore, investment director at PXN Ventures, said:
“Scotland is full of talented pre-seed businesses with global ambitions and compelling solutions, and our ability to nurture this talent is vital to continuing the growth we’ve seen in Scotland’s early-stage and scale-up ecosystem.
“As an investor that writes cheques from pre-seed to Series B, we’re very excited to be partnering with Round One, which bridges the investment readiness and funding gap by providing a platform for investors to actively help pre-seed founders raise their first cheque and future rounds.”
Andrew Holloway, partner at Cooper Parry, said:
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“Scotland has an excellent track record of producing ambitious founders, and programmes like Round One play a vital role in helping them build scalable businesses. Getting the foundations right early matters, particularly when it comes to finance and fundraising readiness.”
Applications close on Friday 21 August 2026.
