Our Autumn 2025 Catalyst cohort brings together ambitious founders from across sectors—and we're particularly proud of the strong representation of female-led ventures tackling some of society's most pressing challenges.
From reimagining elderly care to democratising energy access, these founders are building mission-driven companies that combine purpose with commercial viability. Here are five ventures led by women who exemplify the innovation and determination across this cohort.
Abbi Fawcett and Stephanie Walker – Robin
Reimagining elderly care through technology and trust
Robin was born from personal experience. After caring for their own grandparents and families, co-founders Abbi Fawcett and Stephanie Walker witnessed firsthand the vulnerability and trust involved in placing loved ones in someone else's care. Recognising a gap in the market for high-quality elderly care at home, they set out to reimagine how care can and should be delivered.
Robin's mission is straightforward: to provide the kind of care they would want for their own families, while using technology as the key enabler to deliver consistent, high-quality, trust-driven support.
Joining Techscaler Edinburgh has come at the perfect moment as they build their company, focusing initially on the Edinburgh market. "Being part of a community of ambitious founders is already so empowering," they share. "It's a space to connect, learn, and grow while turning our purpose into scalable impact."
Through Catalyst, Abbi and Stephanie are developing Robin into a known and trusted service, using AI technology to transform their vision into reality.
Adedoyin Mfon – Grains & Oil
Turning waste into energy for underserved communities
Adedoyin Mfon founded Grains & Oil out of a lifelong awareness of what energy poverty looks and feels like. Growing up in Nigeria with unreliable power—studying by candlelight, sleeping through sweltering nights without electricity—she experienced firsthand how energy access shapes daily life and opportunity.
Decades later, millions of families still live without reliable power. That reality fuels Adedoyin's vision to decentralise energy generation, enabling households, farms, and institutions to produce their own electricity from resources around them.
Grains & Oil's mission is to broaden access to electricity for underserved communities in Nigeria by repurposing food and animal waste into sustainable energy sources. The company aims to turn everyday waste into opportunity, ensuring that access to light, comfort, and progress is no longer a privilege, but a basic right.
Through Catalyst, Adedoyin is refining the business and financial model while building strategic partnerships that can help scale impact. "I'm especially excited to explore how emerging technologies can accelerate the transition to sustainable energy and foster inclusive economic participation across communities," she explains.
Ruth Pringle and Jennie Reed – True Voice English
Helping creatives speak English with confidence
Ruth Pringle and Jennie Reed are co-founders of True Voice English, a creative English training company based in Scotland. Together, they're building methods to help artists, designers, and other creatives speak English with confidence through real conversations about their work and process.
For professional creatives, there are few tailored language options—despite the creative industries representing around 3% of most countries' GDP—because their language needs are so unique.
True Voice English's approach combines Ruth's background in art and coaching with Jennie's expertise in pronunciation and neurolanguage coaching. Clients' unique creative identities get expressed through practice-led exercises combined with conversation and coaching.
Through Catalyst, Ruth and Jennie are refining their business model, clarifying customer pathways, and learning how technology can make their high-touch approach scalable and sustainable without compromise. They're particularly interested in learning from mentors and peers who've built mission-driven education or creative-tech ventures as they shape the next stage of growth.
Annabel Illingworth – Vocalista
Giving communities a real voice in shaping their future
Annabel Illingworth founded Vocalista to bridge the gap between communities and decision-makers—so that policy, strategic, and design-focused decisions about places, people, and infrastructure genuinely enhance both quality of life and the environment.
Vocalista is a cloud-based virtual town hall for destinations, a platform where thousands of places are approached as interconnected yet geofenced systems. The tools help users crowd-source and crowd-map social and environmental evidence, and to communicate and collaborate around the common good, leading to better outcomes for people and planet.
Having completed Techscaler's previous First Steps and Next Steps programmes and received the MVP grant, Vocalista is now ready to scale—growing its user base and partnerships with councils, landowners, renewable energy companies, tourism boards, and national parks.
"This Catalyst programme falls at the perfect moment," Annabel explains. "It's helping us sense-check our foundations and accelerate into revenue generation. Our mission remains simple: to give people a real voice in shaping their future. Because when communities and data come together, we can design places that truly thrive—socially, economically, and environmentally."
Eliza Ralph – Spectral Wrender
Transforming data insights into meaningful social impact through gaming
Eliza Ralph founded Spectral Wrender, a science-driven software company exploring how gamification and interactive design can transform data insights into meaningful social impact.
As a software engineer and researcher with a multidisciplinary practice across video games, life sciences, and emerging technologies, Eliza brings a unique perspective to conservation storytelling. Her creative practice—including a keen interest in photography—is grounded in a deep connection to the natural world, drawing inspiration from birds and other creatures of nature.
Spectral Wrender's flagship game explores how emotionally resonant gameplay can serve as a medium for nature-inspired storytelling and raise awareness of conservation and biodiversity loss. Alongside this, the company is developing products that blend gamification and citizen science to inspire real-world engagement with nature.
Through Catalyst, Spectral Wrender is focused on becoming fundraising-ready for a content milestone, building on an established technical prototype.
What's Next
Over the next 10 weeks, these founders—alongside the rest of our Autumn 2025 cohort—will be immersed in intensive, hands-on work: applying Jobs-to-Be-Done methodology for customer discovery, building prototypes, launching to potential customers for feedback, and developing evidence-based growth strategies.
Interested in joining the next cohort? Sign up for a free Techscaler membership today to be notified of the latest opportunities first.
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