O2

O2 is a multinational telecommunications services provider, owned by Telefónica.

British Business Bank

The British Business Bank’s aim is to make finance markets work better for small businesses in the UK at all stages of their development: starting up, scaling up and staying ahead. The British Business Bank is 100% Government owned, but independently managed. It brings expertise and Government money to the smaller business finance markets. It doesn’t lend or invest directly. Instead it works with over 100 partners such as banks, leasing companies, venture capital funds and web-based platforms.

For more information visit: https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/

Business Growth Fund

BGF (Business Growth Fund) is the UK’s most active provider of growth capital to growing smaller and medium sized UK businesses that need long-term investment to drive their future success.  BGF backs privately owned and AIM listed companies by providing growth capital for profitable businesses, typically with a turnover of £5m-£100m, and through BGF Ventures it offers venture capital for pre-profit technology companies. BGF initially invest up to £10m for a minority equity stake and provides further funding as a company continues to grow.

In addition to access to capital, investee companies can benefit from BGF’s expertise and guidance on strategic and operational issues plus access to a significant UK-wide network of contacts. 

Investment can be used as development capital to fund growth that is organic, achieved via acquisition, or both. BGF will not engage in company buy-outs, although an injection of cash from BGF may facilitate some change of ownership, providing the majority of funding is used to generate growth. 

BGF’s team of nearly 100 investors, based in regional offices across the UK, believe that it is important to be close and relevant to the companies they work with. They are keen to meet with more entrepreneurs and with advisers and other members of the ecosystems that support them.

Innovate UK

Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency. Innovate UK works with people, companies and partner organisations to find and drive the science and technology innovations that will grow the UK economy – delivering productivity, new jobs and exports. Our aim at Innovate UK is to keep the UK globally competitive in the race for future prosperity.

Google

Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in September 1998. Since then, the company has grown to more than 50,000 employees worldwide, with a wide range of popular products and platforms like Search, Maps, Ads, Gmail, Android, Chrome, and YouTube. We ourselves began in a garage and today we celebrate our entrepreneurial roots by supporting founders and businesses to grow. We partner with startup communities and build spaces where entrepreneurs can learn, connect, and create companies that will change the world.

GroupM

GroupM is the world’s leading media investment company and part of the WPP network. They use innovation and pioneering expertise to supercharge their agencies and make advertising work better for people.

London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange Group is an international markets infrastructure business. Through its platforms, LSEG offers market participants, including retail investors, institutions and SMEs unrivalled access to Europe’s capital markets.

The Group also plays a vital economic and social role, enabling companies to access funds for growth and development. Both AIM, London Stock Exchange Group’s growth market and ELITE, its innovative support programme for fast growing companies, are fundamental to LSEG’s SME support offering.

LSEG is delighted to support the Scale Up Institute and is committed to backing both high growth and later stage companies, giving them the opportunity to develop into the stars of the future.

Smith & Williamson

As a leading accountancy and financial services group, Smith & Williamson is at the heart of the scale-up agenda. The firm’s dedicated entrepreneurial services group provides a wide range of commercial, financial and taxation services to ambitious growth businesses, as well as their owners and investors.

Through a variety of linked activities, Smith & Williamson is engaged in supporting and promoting the entrepreneurial and scale-up agendas. These include the production of a quarterly Enterprise Index, an Entrepreneurial Minds programme and regular Scale-Up Masterclasses, designed to inspire and share best practice with established and aspiring business leaders.

Behind the scenes, the firm supports a variety of networks, think tanks, industry bodies and events. Smith & Williamson is therefore proud to be a corporate founder of the Scale-Up Institute, helping to influence and improve the ecosystem for entrepreneurial businesses and facilitating their development and growth.

Smith & Williamson’s reputation is built on being the go-to-firm for entrepreneurs and their business interests – a reputation established through a compelling combination of culture, structure and service provision which connects, inspires and supports today’s business leaders.

To find out more about Smith & Williamson visit Smith & Williamson Scaling Up, or alternatively call John Morris on 020 7131 4450 or email john.morris@smith.williamson.co.uk.

Smith & Williamson LLP
Regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales for a range of investment business activities. A member of Nexia International

NatWest

We’re the banking partner that prioritises what matters to you, and delivers the strategic advice and expertise you need to grow confidently and quickly.

Better Business Finance

Better Business Finance provides impartial information and support to businesses and entrepreneurs looking to develop and grow; whether the business is seeking finance, or starting out or exporting abroad, BBF is here to help.

It was set up by Barclays, HSBC, RBS, Lloyds and Santander in 2011 and is managed by UK Finance in collaboration with its business and finance partners.

Digital Catapult

Digital Catapult is a market leading technology innovation and research centre aimed at scaling up young companies and helping traditional businesses make better use of digital technology.

Export Growth Partners

Export Growth Partners is a venture formed by four UK business support organisations – Business West, One Midlands, the Growth Company and Enterprise Nation. Its vision is to create an integrated, nationally recognised route to world-beating export support, providing export support packages from ‘best in class’ public and private sector specialists.

HSBC Innovation Banking

Combining deep expertise with dynamic agility, we pride ourselves on being a trusted partner for those reshaping the world. From start-ups to venture capitalists, our shared ambition for our clients helps turn their vision into reality.

Aston Business School

Founded in 1895 and a University since 1966, Aston University has been always been a force for change. For 50 years the University has been transforming lives through pioneering research, innovative teaching and graduate employability success. Aston is renowned for its opportunity enabler through broad access and inspiring academics, providing education that is applied and has real impact on all areas of society, business and industry.

BioIndustry Association

The BioIndustry Association (BIA) is the trade association for innovative enterprises involved in UK bioscience. Members include emerging and established bioscience companies; pharmaceutical companies; academic, research and philanthropic organisations; and service providers to the bioscience sector. The BIA represents the interests of its members to a broad section of stakeholders, from government and regulators to patient groups and the media. Our goal is to secure the UK’s position as a global hub and as the best location for innovative research and commercialisation, enabling our world-leading research base to deliver healthcare solutions that can truly make a difference to people’s lives. The ability for UK biotech companies to scale-up is vital if the success of the industry is to grow in this country and if we are going to achieve the aims set out in the BIA’s Vision for the UK life Sciences sector in 2025 to be the third global cluster. By sharing expertise across industries we can work to address key issues such as skills, talent, financing as well as foster collaboration with big business and government.

Bird & Bird

Bird & Bird is an international law firm with a focus on helping organisations being changed by technology and the digital world. Through their work Bird & Bird seek to provide a platform for the UK’s most inspiring companies so that the UK can become a world-class centre for innovation and scaleup growth.

The British Library Business & IP Centre

The British Library Business & IP Centre, which opened in 2006, has a track record in supporting entrepreneurs and business owners (especially women and BAME) to start up and run viable businesses, thus creating a pipeline to scale-ups. To date, over 650,000 people have used the Centre and it has rolled out this model to 10 regional city libraries with the aim of reaching 20 by 2020/21.

Creative England

The creative industries generate £84bn a year for the UK economy and are increasingly seen as an important sector driving future growth. Creative England is dedicated to unlocking the latent potential of creative businesses and ensuring that culture, creativity and enterprise can thrive. We have a particular focus on supporting businesses in the English regions.

finnCap

finnCap is very excited to be part of the ScaleUp Institute which is all about focusing its efforts on those ambitious companies who can really grow fast, create jobs, pay taxes and move our economy forward. This is a really important agenda.

Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

Since 1990, Cambridge Judge has forged a reputation as a centre of rigorous thinking and high-impact transformative education, situated within one of the world’s most prestigious research universities, and in the heart of the Cambridge Cluster, the most successful technology entrepreneurship cluster in Europe.

Lancashire County Council

Lancashire County Council has developed a range of offerings for its local scaleups by bringing together business leaders in Lancashire’s key sectors for performance coaching, one-to-one advice and peer learning.

Lazaridis Institute

The Lazaridis Institute for the Management of Technology Enterprises was created in 2015 to support growth-oriented Canadian technology companies. Developed through investments by Mike Lazaridis and the Government of Ontario, the Lazaridis Institute helps current and emerging technology firms to scale rapidly into globally competitive organizations. The Lazaridis Institute is based at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, part of the Waterloo Region – Toronto Tech Corridor. We create knowledge, share intelligence and build collaborative networks to strengthen Canada’s technology ecosystem, and the business leaders and students central to it.

Nesta

Nesta is an innovation charity with a mission to help people and organisations bring great ideas to life. Established in 1998 as the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts, it was originally a UK public body designed to promote creativity, talent and innovation across a wide spectrum of areas and interests. It became an independent charity in 2012. We are dedicated to supporting ideas that can help improve all our lives, with activities ranging from early stage investment to in-depth research and practical programmes.

Rockspring

The ScaleUp Institute represents the doorway through which the UK’s best inventions and innovations can scale up to become world class commercial businesses. Supporting this effort is a matter of national economic importance.

Said Business School, Oxford University

The Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, is a leading international business school, embedded in a world-class university. It teaches a wide variety of programs, ranging from undergraduate to post-graduate degree, as well as numerous executive education offerings. It has a long-standing commitment to entrepreneurship and economic growth. In 2015 the Financial Times ranking for entrepreneurship ranked its flagship MBA program number one in Europe, and number seven in the world. Scale-up is a central concern in all of its entrepreneurship-related undertakings, including its teaching programs and research activities. It also had a vibrant Entrepreneurship Centre that acts as a catalyst to entrepreneurial activities through the University of Oxford, as well as local and global businesses.

Scaleup Capital

We are expert scale-up investors.

We scale B2B digital businesses through our Scaler Programme and Academy. We provide the funding, expertise, methodology and support tailored to your business needs at the right times.

We focus entirely on the scale-up phase. We acquire and/or invest £2-£10 million into businesses with revenues usually between £1-£10 million and an enterprise value of £2-£30 million, and scale them to revenues of £10-£50 million and an enterprise value of £20-£200 million over 4-8 years.

We have a track record of consistently scaling up companies at an accelerated rate, with improved quality and more robust performance.

Our intent is to build great businesses and deliver world-class returns to founders, managers, co-investors and our own fund investors.

https://scaleupcapital.com/

Sullivan & Worcester

Sullivan has one goal: to help businesses thrive in an ever-changing marketplace. We combine the breadth of experience and sophistication you expect from a prominent, top-tier law firm with an unusually creative and flexible approach. Clients choose Sullivan because our lawyers are hands-on, business savvy and straightforward, with an intense commitment to our clients’ interests.

Tech Nation

Tech Nation works with ambitious tech entrepreneurs to help them scale faster through growth programmes, digital entrepreneurship skills, a visa scheme for exceptional talent, and by championing the UK’s digital sector through data-driven reports & campaigns.

University of Sussex

The University of Sussex is a leading research-intensive university near Brighton. With both an international and local outlook, it engages across the business, government, public and third sector community to stimulate developments in research and drive innovation.

Vistage

Vistage is an organisation designed exclusively for high-integrity MDs, CEOs and executive leaders who are looking to drive better decisions and better results for their companies. Our members — 21,000 strong in more than 17 countries — gather in trusted, confidential peer advisory groups where they tackle their toughest challenges and biggest opportunities. Leveraging the Vistage platform, our members have demonstrated the ability to refine their instincts, improve their judgment, expand their perspectives and optimise decision making. MDs & CEOs who joined Vistage grew their companies at more than double the rate of the average company, according to a 2017 analysis of Dun & Bradstreet US data.

Learn more at vistage.co.uk