Business development and advice
Scale your business
Scale your business
Companies that scale are the beating heart of the Scottish economy. Our range of commercialisation, start-up and early stage entrepreneurial growth support, could help transform your thinking and accelerate your journey.
Support for high growth spin-outs
If you're considering forming a company to commercialise IP owned by a university, we can support with:
- Commercialising your research and innovation
- Market assessment
- IP protection
- Building a commercial team
- Company formation
From lab to marketplace
Our High-Growth Spin-out Programme helps researchers to take their ideas and inventions from the lab to the global marketplace by awarding funding and support.
If your team has made advances during curiosity-driven or strategic research, and your project now has serious commercial potential, talk to someone in your organisation with responsibility for spin-outs. You could get help from the High-Growth Spin-out Programme to move forward with your plans.
Get in touch today, our team is on hand to answer your questions and explain the support we can offer to help you spin-out.
Image: Novosound co-founders Richard Cooper and Dave Hughes.
Support for high growth start-ups
If you’re an innovation-driven enterprise with the ambition to build a company of scale from the outset, you’re likely to need intensive specialist support at the start-up phase to ensure solid foundations are in place for future scale up. We can help.
We're looking for start-up companies with a unique or disruptive product or business model, and strong intellectual property that can address a customer need within a significant international market.
You’ll have the potential to scale to £5 million+ sales and/or likely to require significant external investment to accelerate your journey in this early phase.
Intensive support
We work intensively with companies in the digital media, technology and engineering, energy and life sciences sectors, supporting:
- Developing and launching innovative and disruptive new products
- Entrepreneurial skills development
- Validating opportunity and markets
- Developing a business model and plan
- Route to market, sales and marketing plans
- Engagement with investors to raise necessary funding for future growth
- Building your management and non-executive teams
- Facilitating advisory and professional networks
Skills development
If you're starting a business in Scotland, we can offer specialised, ongoing support, including access to skills support, to help you grow as an entrepreneur and take your business or business idea to the next level.
We also run a variety of programmes and events throughout the year that are aimed at supporting entrepreneurs on an individual level as well as at a business level.
Support for scale-ups
If you’re an innovative, ambitious and fast-growing company (+20% per year) looking to achieve £5m-£10m+ turnover within 7 years, here’s how we can support you:
- Leadership, strategy, sales and product development
- Talent attraction
- Development of international and investor networks
- Embedding innovation as a driver of sustainable growth
- One-to-one in-house company training
- Practitioner-led group executive education
- Peer-to-peer learning and ambition raising
Investment and connections
Alongside a range of training and support to become investor ready, we can help showcase your company and connect you to local, national and international investors.
We can also help you secure seed, Series A and follow-on funding to grow and scale your business.
Find out more about attracting investment
We can connect you to:
- Network of partner organisations or individuals best placed to support you at whatever stage of growth you are at, whatever your sector or specific needs
- Peer or role model businesses for advice, support and inspiration, including harnessing our extensive international connections to help you extend your network around the globe
Ready to scale up?
Our team is on hand to answer your questions and explain the support we can offer to help your business scale.