Entrepreneurship strategy
Empowering growth businesses

We will reach our goal to empower growth businesses by achieving three aims.

Aim 1 

Enable investment in ambitious companies across Scotland.

We will do this by: 

  • focusing our investment capability on first-to-equity businesses, addressing increasing market demand for early-stage finance 
  • supporting and contributing to the development of an improved national pipeline of investment opportunities by using our expertise to build capacity across the sector 
  • contributing to the development and launch of a national innovation fund supporting high growth potential spinouts and start-ups from across Scotland 
  • supporting founders, particularly those from underrepresented groups, to navigate the local and global investor landscape

Aim 2 

Be a value-add investor.

We will do this by: 

  • matching the growth needs of portfolio companies with student talent and academic expertise 
  • educating founders about the importance of diversity and sustainable, impactful practices for business and investment success 
  • connecting founders with local and global networks through our Enterprise & Investment Committee and other influential contacts

Aim 3

Use our academic expertise and capabilities to accelerate the development of scale-ups.
 
We will do this by: 

  • building on our award-winning portfolio of training and education for high-growth companies by identifying and addressing market needs 
  • using our manufacturing excellence and capabilities, playing a key role in the development of major Scottish scale initiatives including a Deeptech super cluster 
  • supporting emerging high-growth businesses to adopt AI to increase productivity, reduce risk and improve decision-making