Version 1

Combining local market presence and global scale to succeed in Scotland

Over the past 30 years Version 1 has grown to become Ireland's largest indigenous AI and digital transformation company and has firmly established itself among Europe's leaders in the field with over 4,200 people employed across Ireland, the UK, New York, India, Europe and Australia. That success is firmly based on the company's approach of bringing global scale and local insight to every engagement.

That tactic has served it well since entering the Scotland market some 12 years ago with the acquisition of Rocela, one of the country's largest technology consultants. That was followed four years ago by the acquisition of Edinburgh headquartered data and business intelligence and analytics specialist company Instinctive BI and most recently by that of CreateFuture, an agentic AI and technology services firm with offices in Edinburgh, Leeds, London and Sofia. Founded in Edinburgh in 2010, CreateFuture had grown into a 650-person Scottish technology success story before joining Version 1. Its expertise in agentic AI delivery and digital transformation, particularly across highly regulated sectors such as public services and financial services, complements Version 1's existing capabilities. The combination has strengthened the company's ability to support major Scottish organisations and home-grown private brands while adding further scale to its operations in the country.

Today, Version1 has more than 500 people based in Scotland serving a wide range of clients.

From a financial perspective, we have revenues in the tens of millions of euros across our Scottish region.

Version1 Chief Technology Officer Brad Mallard says.

The reason we succeed is because we are deep specialists across a range of technology fields. That's been recognised by our exceptionally strong partner ecosystem which includes Amazon, Microsoft and Google, Open AI and Anthropic. For example, we are one of only four European Anthropic Preferred Service Partners for the delivery of AI work at scale across the UK and Ireland markets.

Overlaying its exceptional expertise is the company's culture.

Our customers come to us for our breadth of experience and scale as well as our speed of operation. We operate like a boutique with a nimble startup culture. The sweet spot is that we're big enough to deliver, but fast enough and small enough to care, and that lands really well with our clients. Our customers get access to our most senior people at all times.

In Scotland, Version 1 works with organisations across the public and private sectors, including the Scottish Government's Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate (ARE), supporting the delivery of critical digital services.

Market familiarity is key to success in Scotland, and that can only be achieved through a strong presence on the ground, Mallard explains. He points to the company's success in winning the ARE Scotland contract as an example.

That is a very significant multi-million-pound contract which provides services to protect millions of pounds worth of rural payments annually. We won that for a few reasons. One of them is our great experience in the agricultural domain. Our experience in that sector, combined with our ability to deliver modern, resilient digital services in highly regulated environments, were key factors in securing the award.

Also, the relative importance of agriculture to Scotland's GDP is similar to that of Ireland, it is very different to the English market and we understand that.

Cultural awareness plays a role as well.

That's one of the reasons we have so many people based in Scotland and why we continue to invest heavily in the country. There is a natural desire to work with organisations based in Scotland with a commitment to the country. Proximity is very important. It's absolutely critical to our clients in government and regulated industries, especially in today's world of AI where there are heightened concerns around IT sovereignty and security. The ability to work closely with our clients on those issues is extremely important and is one of the reasons we have seen such strong growth in Scotland.

In a nutshell, Scotland is not really a market you can sell into, you've got to be in it.

That's about more than a business presence.

Social value is critically important as well. Our investment in skills, people, work experience placements and communities across Scotland was a key reason why we succeed and why we continue to be very well placed to win contracts with government organisations across Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Mallard notes.

He believes the Scotland market offers valuable opportunities for other Irish firms, and not just in the technology sector.

It's a very interesting market for organisations wanting to progress into the broader UK market. It's almost like an easier stepping stone. You've got proximity to big banks, to some great private sector companies, and proximity to government departments. The business culture is quite similar to Ireland. It is very supportive of innovative entrepreneurial businesses and has been a great place for us to build and scale. We are posting double digit growth in Scotland at the moment, that's very much bucking the industry trend.

He explains.

He also points to the ready availability of talent due to the presence of financial services, technology and other hubs in the country.

There's a real hotbed of talent there that companies can tap into. That element has been very important to us.

He advises Irish companies considering entering the Scottish market to work with Enterprise Ireland.

Enterprise Ireland is one of the most helpful organisations we work with, both from an investment and support point of view, but also the connections and networking opportunities. Their understanding of the landscape and how to connect into the organisations, the events they crate, and the way they have been able to put us in front of various different government departments, banks, and other sectors has been great. They are fabulous to work with.

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