Businesses across the north and north-east are being urged to get involved in a £50,000 growth competition.
Sir Tom Hunter and the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB), along with others, have come together to launch Scaleup Scotland2.0, aimed at backing the country’s scaling companies.
The programme is being supported by Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce and Asco chairman Bob Keiller who will be offering his advice and guidance to the successful applicants.
It is focused on businesses potentially able to achieve more than £100m in turnover and will offer intensive strategic support to an initial cohort of 12.
‘Jump in’ and apply
Mr Keiller said: “I have supported Scaleup Scotland from the start.
“With SNIB now involved it can move to another level. I am looking forward to helping ambitious companies on their growth journey.
“Any companies that are swithering about applying should jump in.
“Scotland has a good eco system for supporting entrepreneurs, but Scaleup Scotland stands out when it comes to helping established businesses grow.”
The package of support is estimated to be valued in excess of £50,000 each.
Host of well-known business leaders
Alongside advice and mentoring from some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs and business leaders, including Mr Keiller, Sir Jackie Stewart, Sir Tom Hunter and retail entrepreneur Theo Paphitis, they will also receive strategic consultancy support.
Chief executives take part in quarterly retreats to focus on common challenges through a mixture of specialist and peer to peer learning experiences.
Multi-millionaire businessman and philanthropist Sir Tom said: “Through our existing ScaleUp Scotland programme we recognised we needed to deliver a programme for the next level up and that’s what we are doing with the 2.0 version offering far more tailored, one to one sectoral growth support.
“Multiple studies, including our own commissioned by Oxford Economics, detail precisely why Scotland needs more scale-ups – this programme will provide precise, laser focussed support to high growth businesses with massive ambition.
“Scotland fundamentally needs far more ambitious scale-ups and to enable them we have to offer the right support – our economy depends on scale-ups, they are the engine of growth and prosperity so if we want to deliver a ten-year growth strategy this is one starting point.”
The programme will require a contribution of £10k per business towards costs.
Help grow the economy
SNIB chairman Willie Watt said: “I am delighted that the bank is partnering with the Hunter Foundation to launch this exciting programme to Scotland’s scale-up companies.
“The ScaleUp2.0 programme aligns with the bank’s missions and a key strategic priority for the bank is to support businesses looking to scale.
“The bank is committed to investing in innovation and industries of the future with the aim of supporting a more resilient and productive economy.
“We know that the success of high growth business is critical to boosting Scotland’s productivity and this programme not only looks to address the financing gap for scale-up businesses but will provide future business leaders with mentoring and expert advice to support their growth ambitions.
“This will enable CEOs to take a longer-term approach to value creation and help Scotland to build more home-grown businesses.”
Companies should email scaleupscotland@thehunterfoundation.co.uk with entries closing on Monday 19th September at midnight.
All applicants whether successful or not will be offered both advice on their propositions and signposting to ongoing support.
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