A new business support scheme led by the Hunter Foundation aims to provide vital guidance for Scotland’s high-growth businesses.

The ScaleupScotland2.0 programme, a joint venture between the Hunter Foundation and Scottish National Investment Bank, will provide strategic support to Scotland’s scaling companies.

Aimed primarily at high-growth firms with the potential to achieve over £100 million turnover, the programme aims to “raise ambition” and support the development of businesses as they scale.

The programme builds on the success of scaleupscotland.co.uk and will provide support to an initial cohort of 12 Scottish businesses.

Commenting on the launch, Willie Watt, chair of the Scottish National Investment Bank 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.”

Watt added: “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.”

Tailored Support

Developed after extensive analysis of the challenges facing businesses as they scale, the programme seeks to address a traditional lack of support offered to high-growth businesses, and aims to grow the turnover of each business to over £100m.

The package of support is estimated to be valued in excess of £50k.

Alongside advice and mentoring from some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs and business leaders, including Sir Tom Hunter, Lord Haughey and Theo Paphitis, participants will also receive strategic consultancy support.

Recommended

• Comment | It’s time for IT to increase the scope carbon reporting
• Google Gmail hack putting accounts at risk
• Business Gateway helps Scottish marketing firm reach net zero

Initially, this will involve an examination of each business to identify and align the team on the specific challenges facing the entrepreneurial leader, the executive team and the individual functional leaders.

In addition to tailored consultancy and sector specific support, CEOs will participate in quarterly retreats to focus on common challenges through a mixture of specialist and peer-to-peer learning experiences, as well as access to leading entrepreneurs.

Sir Tom Hunter said: “Through our existing ScaleUpScotland 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.”

Sir Tom added: “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.”

Get the latest news from DIGIT direct to your inbox

Our newsletter covers the latest technology and IT news from Scotland and beyond, as well as in-depth features and exclusive interviews with leading figures and rising stars.

To subscribe, click here.