SWURF raises £200,000 pre-seed to deploy private meeting pods and venue app
This article covers SWURF, an Edinburgh HRtech startup, which has raised £200,000 in a pre-seed funding round to accelerate deployment of on-demand private meeting pods and expand its app-based network of remote-working friendly venues across the city. The development aims to support hybrid and remote workers seeking secure, private workspaces and to generate new revenue for hospitality venues and the local economy in Edinburgh.
SWURF, an Edinburgh HRtech startup, has raised £200,000 in a pre-seed funding round to accelerate deployment of on-demand private meeting pods and expand its app-based network of remote-working friendly venues across the city. The raise brings new angel and hospitality investors alongside existing backers and aims to make Edinburgh a testing ground for more flexible, secure places to work.
Why it matters
As hybrid and remote working patterns persist, businesses and workers still face friction when they need private, secure spaces outside the home or the office. SWURF’s model targets that gap by combining a marketplace app with physical infrastructure—what it calls SWURF Pods—deployed in high-footfall locations such as airports and hotels. The company says its network of venues and pods is already generating local economic benefit by monetising underused hospitality space and attracting new customers to partner venues.
SWURF reports more than 450 venues on its platform and a community of roughly 14,000 users, and estimates it is contributing about £2 million to Edinburgh’s local economy through new revenue streams for host venues. For cities seeking to support more flexible working without building new office stock, that kind of demand-led re-use of existing hospitality space is notable.
Inside the product
The core hardware is the SWURF Pod: a lockable, sound-insulated booth designed for short-term private meetings or secure calls. Features listed by the company include advanced soundproofing, a private WiFi network with security-grade encryption, smart LED lighting, air filtration and ergonomic seating. Pods are already installed at Edinburgh Airport and YOTEL on Queen Street, positioning the product for both travelling professionals and local workers.
The SWURF mobile app functions as a discovery and access layer. Users can find nearby venues—hotels, cafés, bars and co-working spaces—book spaces, check in and receive secure WiFi credentials and venue-specific perks. Partners named in the announcement include the Hoxton Hotel, Crowne Plaza Edinburgh Royal Terrace and The Royal Scots Club, and SWURF also cites relationships with hospitality groups including Hilton, IHG and Kew Green Hotels. Those partners provide both distribution and a pipeline of indoor locations where pods and flexible seating can be deployed.
### Who's backing the round
Who are the investors?
The round brings together a mix of individual backers from tech and hospitality. Named participants include Gareth Williams, co-founder of Skyscanner, and Anna Lagerqvist Christopherson, a prominent Edinburgh hospitality entrepreneur who runs venues including Boda BV, Green Room and Victoria Bar. The announcement says these investors join existing backers and industry figures who have recently taken board roles.
SWURF previously secured a six-figure investment in 2025, and the company has strengthened its board with industry executives: Alison Grieve, founder of G-Hold, chairs the board; Scott Leckie has moved from fractional CTO to a permanent board seat; and Daniel Rodgers, founder of QikServe, serves as a non-executive director. The mix of hospitality operators and founders of consumer-facing tech businesses underlines investor interest in companies that bridge physical venues and digital services. This blend of capital and operational expertise aims to help SWURF scale deployments and refine partnerships with hotels and venues.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Nikki Gibson, CEO and Co-Founder of SWURF, said:
This latest investment is a testament to what we are building as we continue to redefine remote working. People want more than just a desk, they need flexibility, security, and environments that inspire productivity. Our mission is to make Edinburgh the global gold standard for flexible working. By expanding our network of host venues and rolling out our high tech SWURF Pods, we are ensuring that whatever your work needs are, the city is your office.
Partners hosting pods also emphasised practical benefits. In the announcement, Margaret Auld, General Manager of Yotel Edinburgh, said:
The Swurf pod is an excellent service that we can provide to our hotel guests and it also brings new people into our hotel.
Those statements reflect SWURF’s dual proposition: a customer-facing convenience product and a revenue opportunity for hospitality partners.
The bigger picture
SWURF sits at the intersection of HRtech, proptech and hospitality. The company’s approach—using an app to aggregate venues and deploying standardised pods—tackles two persistent challenges for hybrid work: privacy and discoverability. For local economies, enabling hotels and cafés to capture incremental daytime business can be an efficient use of existing space.
However, success will depend on unit economics, utilisation rates and the cost of rolling out hardware at scale. Competitors and alternative models range from reservable co-working desks to larger managed office providers. SWURF’s advantage may come from lightweight deployments in places travellers already visit, such as airports and hotels, combined with partner-led distribution.
This raise illustrates continuing investor interest in workplace infrastructure and services that bridge digital platforms and physical venues across the UK and Europe. If SWURF can convert early traction in Edinburgh into repeatable partnerships and steady pod utilisation, it will offer a practical template for how cities can support more flexible working without large new office developments.
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