The Hunter Foundation has launched the next phase of its ScaleUpScotland programme.
This will be its fifth cohort of 12 scaling businesses and to date the four previous cohorts added £500m of incremental revenue, created 3000 new jobs and secured £300m in funding.
“This is by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs; tailored to meet their needs and support them through accelerated growth,” explained Sir Tom Hunter, founder of THF and serial entrepreneur.
“With a little bit of help from us and our amazing ‘entrepreneurs in residence’ these businesses have taken on significant challenges and grown exponentially. Fundamentally the peer-to-peer support across the cohorts coupled with knowledge and insight from entrepreneurs who have ‘been there and done it’ we think makes a significant contribution to supporting businesses scale.”
The 18 month programme is aimed at “highly ambitious entrepreneurs with the potential and desire to grow sales beyond £20-£30 million.”
They are offered a mix of experiential, business, and peer to peer learning to help them scale up.
“Scale Up has given us access to industry experts and contacts that we could not have afforded or had access to otherwise,’ said Ian McKenzie CEO Trojan Energy from Cohort three who recently raised £26m.
“This has resulted in us making positive strategic changes within our business and gaining access to contract opportunities. It is also hugely beneficial to speak regularly with a group of founders and CEOs who are facing the same challenges as you on a daily basis but can offer insight and experience from different industries on how to overcome these challenges.”
THF also runs Pre-Scaler, ScaleUpScotland and ScaleUpScotland2.0.