Barclays innovation hub seeking to plug Scots firms into UK ecosystem

Head of Barclays Business Banking, Abdul Qureshi says the hub’s job is to plug Scottish founders into the UK’s other innovation clusters.

Scotland’s deep tech and life sciences founders may have the knowledge, but what they often lack is a room full of people who understand it.

“If you’re working in quantum, you may not find enough people working in quantum,” said Qureshi.

“You may not find investors who understand quantum, who give you a pathway to build the business and exit the business. They might exist down south, they might exist in California, they might exist in Paris.”

That, he argues, is the problem Barclays’ new Glasgow Innovation Hub is built to solve.

Created by expanding Barclays Eagle Lab Glasgow, it is only the second Barclays Innovation Hub in the UK after Shoreditch in London.

Qureshi pitches it less as a building than as a link between Scotland and the UK’s other innovation clusters, and sees the bank’s role as connecting different parts of the UK economy.

The head of business banking pointed to life sciences as a key area of potential collaboration.

He envisages a Glasgow scientist working on something complementary to a team in Cambridge, or a gifted researcher who needs a co-founder who knows how to run a business.

“We can better connect people between the Cambridge life science ecosystem and the Scottish life science ecosystem,” he said.

“One of the common features of great businesses is that they find the right collaborators early.”

What Scottish life sciences needs, Qureshi argues, are people who have built a business and sold it to big pharma.

Glasgow’s technology ecosystem is valued at £5.6bn, its tech companies have raised more than £300m of venture capital since the start of 2025, and its universities have produced more than 130 spinouts.

Qureshi points to the concentration of science along the Glasgow-Edinburgh corridor.

In his view the region has the components but what it lacks is “acceleration and amplification”.

Shoreditch, which opened in May 2025, is the template for Glasgow. It has drawn 51,000 unique visitors and houses Barclays’ principal investment arm, innovation bankers and the ScaleUp Institute, with Nvidia, Google and Microsoft among its founding partners.

Qureshi wants to bring “the broader Barclays machine” north, along with the bank’s corporate client base.

“Most of the FTSE 100 are Barclays clients,” he said.

He also points to access to funding as a barrier that the innovation hub can help to address.

“What you need to start the business to get to seed versus what you need to get to Series A and Series B are quite different,” he said.

“Regional ecosystems feel the Series A gap more acutely because investors who write bigger cheques for specific technologies are often based elsewhere.”

Richard Woodfield, head of solution services at DataVita, one of the hub’s innovation partners, said too many Founders relocate to the US.

"There are lots of examples of this sort of fleeing to what is perceived to be proximity to money or talent," he said. "However, that can lead to significant cost inflation and much higher competition for talent"

“The test of a UK-wide network is whether Scottish companies can exploit its high level of expertise and combine access to capital without leaving.”

For now, the network exists more in ambition than in structure.

Qureshi would not put a figure on Barclays’ commitment, citing commercial sensitivity, and pointed instead to the “hundreds of millions of pounds” already invested in the bank’s Glasgow campus.

Barclays has not yet set out how links with other clusters will work in practice.

Qureshi is keen to stress the hub will not compete with Scottish Enterprise, Techscaler, the universities or the accelerators, noting that Barclays already runs four Eagle Labs in Scotland.

Barclays says its Eagle Labs have supported more than 21,000 businesses across the UK, which have gone on to secure £5.8bn in investment, support more than 50,000 jobs and contribute more than £1.3bn in GVA. The figures have been verified by its data partner Beauhurst.

“This is not about replicating or duplicating what already happens in the ecosystem,” he said. “This is about just taking it to the next level.”

PXN, the venture investor that is also a launch partner, plans a series of investment events and drop-in clinics at the hub.

Ben Davies, marketing director at PXN Group, said investors “should do more than provide capital” and need to build relationships with founders “well before a business starts raising money”.

For Qureshi, the payoff comes from getting the right people in the same room, wherever they are based.

“If you have the right business with the right expertise and mentorship, that opens up connections, because there’s plenty of money looking for smart investments globally,” he said.

“Putting Scotland on the innovation map nationally and internationally, coupled with that access, and matchmaking the highest potential entrepreneurs quickly with the right people who can help them – that’s where magic can happen.”

Five key facts

Cluster connector: Barclays says its new Glasgow Innovation Hub will link Scottish founders with expertise and investors in Cambridge, London and abroad, rather than leaving them to find those networks alone.

Life sciences first: Qureshi singles out closer ties between Cambridge’s life sciences cluster and Scotland’s, with quantum and space also named as sectors where specialist investors are scarce locally.

Mentors who’ve exited: the aim is to pair early-stage scientists with founders who have built and sold businesses, widening a Scottish mentor pool shaped largely by Skyscanner.

Eagle Labs track record: Barclays says Eagle Labs have supported more than 21,000 UK businesses, which have raised £5.8bn and support more than 50,000 jobs, figures verified by Beauhurst.

Scottish base: Glasgow’s tech ecosystem is valued at £5.6bn, its companies have raised more than £300m of venture capital since the start of 2025, and its universities have produced more than 130 spinouts.