Nicola Anderson, the driving force behind Scotland’s booming fintech cluster, has been appointed director of scaling innovation at Scottish Enterprise. The move, confirmed today, places one of the country’s most respected innovation leaders at the heart of efforts to turn breakthrough Scottish companies into global giants.
The appointment ends months of speculation about where Anderson would land after stepping down as CEO of FinTech Scotland late last year. Sources close to the search process say Scottish Enterprise moved quickly to secure her, beating interest from London-based funds and international agencies.
From Fintech Cluster Builder to National Scale-Up Chief
Anderson leaves FinTech Scotland at the peak of its success. During her tenure the cluster grew from 76 firms in 2018 to over 240 today, attracted £1.4 billion in investment since 2020, and helped create more than 3,000 direct jobs.
The numbers tell only half the story.
She forged landmark partnerships with global banks, launched the FinTech National Network with hubs in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, and Dundee, and put Scotland on the map as Europe’s fastest-growing fintech centre outside London.
Jane Martin, managing director of innovation and investment at Scottish Enterprise, called it “a real coup”.
“Nicola didn’t just grow a cluster; she built an entire ecosystem,” Martin said. “She showed what focused, industry-led collaboration can achieve. Now we want her to do it across life sciences, quantum, photonics, space, and industrial biotech – everywhere Scotland has genuine global edge.”
The Scaling Innovation Mission: Scotland’s New Growth Engine
The role is brand new and deliberately ambitious.
Anderson will lead the Scaling Innovation Mission, one of four priority missions under Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation. The target is blunt: double the number of Scottish companies reaching £100 million revenue by 2035.
That means taking firms from innovative start-up to international scale-up much faster than before.
The mission already has £15 million committed this financial year, with more expected in the March budget. It will focus on:
- Removing barriers to private investment in deeptech and life sciences
- Building specialist infrastructure (labs, cleanrooms, testbeds) outside the Golden Triangle
- Creating “innovation districts” around universities in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Dundee
- Opening doors to North American and Asian markets for Scottish scale-ups
Anderson made clear she is not starting from zero.
“Scotland already has extraordinary strengths,” she said in her first interview after the appointment. “We have world-leading research, talented founders, and genuine competitive advantage in multiple sectors. What we now need is ruthless focus on the companies that can go global fastest.”
Why This Matters Beyond Scotland
The appointment is being watched closely in Westminster too.
The UK Industrial Strategy identifies exactly the same sectors – quantum, semiconductors, life sciences, AI-enabled engineering – as national priorities. Scottish Enterprise will work hand-in-glove with the new UK Scale-Up Taskforce and the National Quantum Strategy.
One London-based investor told me: “If Nicola can replicate even half of what she did in fintech across these other sectors, Scotland will punch so far above its weight that the rest of the UK will have to sit up and copy the playbook.”
A Personal Mission Rooted in Scottish Opportunity
Anderson grew up in Fife and studied at St Andrews before spells in London and Silicon Valley. She repeatedly turned down bigger jobs south of the border to come home and lead FinTech Scotland in 2018.
Friends say the new role feels like a natural homecoming.
One collaborator who worked with her for six years said: “She genuinely believes Scotland can be one of the best places in the world to build a global tech company. This job gives her the budget, the mandate, and the reach to prove it.”
Anderson will start in post on 3 March 2026.
Her diary for the first hundred days is already packed: visits to scale-ups in Aberdeen’s energy transition cluster, the National Robotarium in Edinburgh, and the new Advanced Research and Innovation District in Glasgow’s west end.
Scotland’s next generation of unicorn founders just found their most powerful ally yet.
What do you think: can Scotland finally break the scale-up ceiling and build a wave of £1 billion-plus companies? Drop your thoughts below and use #ScotScale on X – let’s get the conversation started.
