A £17.5 million funding package will be delivered this year to in a bid to establish Scotland as one of Europe’s leading startup economies.

In a statement to Parliament, wellbeing economy & fair work secretary Neil Gray set out a range of actions and investments this year to support entrepreneurs and startup businesses, which are worth nearly £1 billion to the Scottish economy.

He also announced that the Scottish Government will take forward the recommendations of the Pathways Report on supporting women in entrepreneurship.

These include:

• Developing pre-start centres and pop-ups focused on encouraging women to start businesses and providing best-in-class support to help them develop products and get early access to funding.
• Relaunching the Scottish Government’s Ecosystem Fund with an explicit focus on supporting projects that address the report’s key themes.
• Continuing funding for key partner organisations including Women’s Enterprise Scotland, Investing Women, Business Women Scotland and Scottish Edge.
• Working with enterprise agencies, the Scottish National Investment Bank, and private sector investors to open up access to investment avenues for women-led businesses and other under-invested groups.

The First Minister recently launched a ten-year plan to help create world-class entrepreneurial campuses at 45 universities and colleges across Scotland, with a £5.5m increase in the 2023-24 University Innovation Fund helping deliver the plan and support wider efforts to turn world-leading research into important innovations.

The wellbeing economy & fair work secretary said: “We have all of the raw ingredients necessary to match the leading European exemplars: a proud tradition of innovation and entrepreneurship, a university system that is the envy of the world, and exceptional capability in emerging industries such as clean energy, life sciences and artificial intelligence.

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“Over the last three years we have worked closely with Scotland’s Chief Entrepreneur Mark Logan to produce a series of publications that, together, form a sophisticated and comprehensive plan to make this vision a reality.

“I want to thank Ana Stewart for leading the Pathways review of Women in Entrepreneurship and am pleased to commit to take forward the recommendations of the report. We have a moral and economic duty to do more to support women to start and grow successful businesses.

“This is a package of vision and aspiration that sends a clear and powerful message to Scotland’s innovators, entrepreneurs and disruptors – this Government believes in you and we are prepared to back you.”