Arceptive was founded in 2019 by Stefan Raue and Cham Abeyratna, who have worked together since 2015 building engineering teams and companies across sectors including finance, wearable devices, and sports-tech. The consultancy specialises in software engineering, cloud architecture, data science, and machine learning, serving clients from start-ups to multinationals across the UK and Europe.

The two firms were far from strangers before the merger. They had collaborated on several projects, including work for Transport Scotland, a range of Scottish Government-funded sustainability initiatives, and the co-development of Nooku, an IoT start-up providing air quality monitoring systems for social housing. Both companies are also based at Skypark’s The Beyond co-working space in Finnieston – a workspace that Filament co-founder Gregor Aikman helped establish.

Together, the companies form what is described as a full end-to-end IoT product development agency – a unique proposition in Scotland and rare across the UK. The combined offering spans mechanical, electronics, and digital development under one roof, enabling clients to bring smart products to market more quickly, particularly in regulated sectors such as med-tech and wearable health devices.

Filament, which was founded in 2015 by Mr Aikman, Craig Lynn, and Danny Kane, has an established track record with clients ranging from international brands including Hotel Chocolat, Tchibo, and IKEA, as well as early stage companies and university spin-outs – most recently through the University of Glasgow’s Infinity G programme.

Mr Kane said: “For the past 10 years, we’ve focused on our core competencies and organic growth, but all of our projects have had a software element to them and more than 80% had an IoT or ‘smart’ aspect too. So, combining with Arceptive felt like the next natural iteration of the business. 

“We had aligned our systems and ways of working from sharing projects over the years, and this gives our clients the best of both worlds: a full-stack range of services and the agility of a boutique agency. The size of the combined business puts us in a real sweet spot, and it’s also an opportunity for us to scale, diversify our income streams, and develop our own IP.

“We can see the benefits of bringing the businesses together – it will help us be more cost effective, innovate more quickly, support a broader range of clients, and provides a stronger platform for growth. It’s a new and exciting phase for Filament.”

Stefan Raue, co-founder and head of data and analytics at Arceptive, added: “Filament and Arceptive have been delivering projects together for years – we know how each other works, we share the same standards, and we’ve already proven what we can do together. Bringing the two organisations together under one roof simply means we can do it faster and better.

“What we’re creating is genuinely unique – a full-stack engineering partner that takes clients from early concept and design all the way through mechanical, electronics, and digital, under one roof. But what sets us apart is that this isn’t engineering for engineering’s sake – the customer and end user are always at the centre, and that thinking runs through everything we build, from first prototype to final product.”

Mr Raue continued: “Arceptive has been building the digital infrastructure for smart device and product companies for over seven years, and we’ve always been most effective when working closely with founders who understand both the physical and digital sides of a product. That’s exactly what this merger brings to the market at scale.

“We’re particularly excited about what AI means for our clients – as a practical tool for our clients to improve our internal processes, sharpen our tooling, and ultimately accelerate delivery. The combination of Filament’s design and engineering pedigree with Arceptive’s data and software expertise, and a shared obsession with customer experience, puts us in a strong position to lead on that.”