Explore the ScaleUp Annual Review 2024
Select a section to expand and explore this year's review..
CONTENTS

Introduction 2024

Worcestershire
Background
Worcestershire’s vision is to create a connected, creative and dynamic economy. This drives its strategic approach which focuses business engagement on the county’s scaleups and high-growth potential businesses.
The area – which includes the Worcestershire Growth Hub (WGH) works with partners including Local Government, the University of Worcester, the local Chamber of Commerce and private sector business support providers to identify and support potential scaleups.
The county’s dynamic is that of rural-urban living and the pandemic highlighted the fact that productivity is not dependent on an urban location but can be driven remotely. Leveraging digital connectivity and digitalised products is now a key driver of growth and represents an opportunity for the region’s scaleups.
Clusters in the region are geographically focused and driven by communality of challenge, for example at the Malvern Technology Network / Midlands Cyber . The region is well connected, with 10 universities easily accessible and it is home to the eighth largest Chamber of Commerce in the UK. It also has a significant population of mature entrepreneurs although there is scope to further exploit these links and leverage the experience of the ecosystem.
Local scaleups report challenges in accelerating commercialisation of products and services and in navigating investment options. Many scaleups also report challenges with collaborative opportunities with universities and other partners due to challenges with P terms and ongoing issues with imports and exports as a legacy of Brexit.
Worcestershire drives engagement with high-growth businesses through the WGH. This includes signposting to a suite of business support programmes to foster growth across Worcestershire scaleups, including the Bizsmart programme, BetaDen, Help to Grow and new UKSPF-funded programmes. The Hub also signposts scaleups to a range of regional and national support.
In the past year, delivery of the multi-year-funded UK Shared Prosperity Fund programmes has continued. Furthermore, the Worcestershire Growth Hub (WGH) has developed a strategy for specifically targeting high growth businesses from around the County across different sectors. 67 local businesses have been identified and allocated to WGH Account Managers. WLEP is also leading work on developing improved access to Angel Investment. With support from the British Business Bank WLEP are exploring the feasibility of a new Angel Network in the area.
SCALEUP PROGRAMMES
Through SmartBoards, BizSmart continues to offer peer to peer communities of six participants from diverse backgrounds and non-competing sectors. Structured engagement begins with four themed SmartBoost sessions covering leadership and vision along with the principles of building for value and creating a laser focus through 90-day planning. Once every quarter, members share their 90-day plans with the group.
The BetaDen technology accelerator offers scaleups a nine-month package of support including free office space, mentoring, funding and access to a local network of business leaders through its ‘Accelerate’ programme. Established in 2018, BetaDen is co-located with the WLEP executive team at the Malvern Hills Science Park. This year, it supported its seventh and eighth cohorts of technology entrepreneurs Cohort 8.0 will end with a Showcase event in February 2025.
Furthermore, this year BetaDen secured additional funding to develop and deliver a new Incubator programme, ‘Incubate’, to provide support for the earlier-stage companies who are not yet ready to benefit fully from ‘Accelerate’. Incubate is a 2-month programme of workshops and Mentor support for 10-12 companies per Intake. The first Intake of 10 companies ran July – August 2024; the second Intake started in September and will conclude in November 2024; the third and fourth Intakes will run Nov 2024 – Jan 2025 and Jan- March 2025.
Help to Grow: Management, delivered by the University of Worcester, continues to provide support to local scaleups. The programme covers strategies for growth and innovation and equips scaleup leaders with the practical skills and knowledge to develop employees, build business resilience, increase profits and support growth.
The Elevate Worcestershire programme supports early-stage and scaling businesses through one-to-one support in developing their growth strategy, and peer sessions. Specialist advisory sessions are also provided to help scaling businesses meet specific challenges including HR, Marketing and finance. Peer sessions focus on leadership and vision, creating cohesive teams and building for value. Elevate also offers targeted programmes for key sectors of the local economy including creative tech businesses and manufacturing with a focus on supply chain improvement, and digital technology and automated manufacturing.
Financial support is also available to early stage and scaling businesses through a number of local and regional funds. Midlands Engine Investment Fund provides commercially focused finance through Small Business Loans, Debt Finance, Proof of concept and Equity Finance funds. The Malvern Hills Rural Fund and Wychavon Rural Fund offer capital grants of up to £25k to help businesses overcome barriers to growth, particularly those associated with being in a rural area.
Earlier stage businesses can also access free one to one support from the Worcestershire Growth Hub Professional Business Advisors Programme on digital adoption, financial strategy, sustainability, marketing and communication, and strategic workforce planning.
WGH continue to refer businesses to national funding and grants such as Innovate UK and British Business Bank
There are also a range of public and private programmes in the West Midlands – find out more on the scaleup support finder here.
IMPACT AND RESULTS
Since its inception in 2018, BetaDen has supported more than 50 technology scaling businesses and contributed to the creation of over 170 jobs, while participating companies have reported raising over £507m in funding. There has been a 1:£6.60 return on investment and 100% satisfaction rating from participants. It also supports and grows the local technology ecosystem by hosting networking events at the Science Park and elsewhere in the county .
Over 90 participants have attended the Incubate ‘public’ events, and BetaDen has delivered 6 public workshops on technology subjects to over 120 participants between April and October 2024.
The WGH has referred over 1280 companies to appropriate ‘growth’ support for their business stage and needs.
LESSONS LEARNED
Strong relationships with commercial partners and stakeholders are critically important for future growth. The area along with the Growth Hub play a pivotal role in managing these relationships and providing local business intelligence to identify gaps in provision to inform future policy and decision making including the shape of future programmes and investment in business support.
FUTURE PLANS
Worcestershire will continue to identify the resource to support scaleups through tailored provision delivered through the private and public sectors. The LEP, which will be continuing its operations with the support of local partners, sees an effective ‘escalator’ of connected support with a holistic local scaleup programme as central. It will continue to harness support from national programmes to meet local needs.
WLEP is working with District Councils to develop plans for future start-up/scale up support – dependent on funding announced by the new government.
The Midlands Engine Investment Fund II, a £400m investment fund, continues to offer a range of commercial finance options with small loans from £25,000 and equity investment up to £5m. The fund covers the entire East Midlands, South East Midlands and West Midlands regions.
LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS
According to ScaleUp Institute analysis of data received directly from ONS for years 2018-2021, the following picture emerges on the local environment.
Local Authorities located within Worcestershire have a moderate-high density of scaleups, and the trend between 2018 and 2021 reveals the following:
Scaleups by Density: Excellent
The vertical axis of this matrix shows where local authorities located in this locality stand compared to the rest of the UK: 5 of the 6 local authorities have an above median density of scaleups measured by employment growth and 5 of the 6 local authorities have an above median density of scaleups measured by turnover growth.
Scaleup Trends Over Time: Needs Improvement
The horizontal axis of this matrix shows whether the density of scaleups has increased or decreased over time relative to the rest of the UK: 3 of the 6 local authorities are above the median in terms of improving the density of scaleups by employment in their community and 4 of the 6 local authorities are below the median for scaleups by turnover.
The ScaleUp Institute will continue to monitor this closely in the coming years to track whether local initiatives move the dial in the right direction for increasing the density of scaleups.
CONTENTS

Introduction 2024

Share