Advertorial: Significant growth funding available for Scottish companies

Kerry Sharp, director of the Scottish Investment Bank, on raising awareness for high growth Scottish companies looking for Series A Funding that the Scottish-European Growth Co-investment Programme (SEGCP) is available.

I wanted to highlight the opportunity for scaling Scottish companies to access significant growth funding.

At Scottish Enterprise, we look at ways to help the economy to grow. A key part of this is considering initiatives to build on Scotland’s business ecosystem and how we can help support growth companies.

In my role, responsible for the activities of the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) at Scottish Enterprise, I meet many passionate and ambitious people on a daily basis who are setting off on their own business growth journeys, whether it be straight from University or following years gaining valuable experience in their field of expertise.

One of the Scottish Investment Bank’s roles is to monitor the risk capital market, financing gaps and challenges and develop potential solutions to support companies. To date we have focused support on the early stage risk capital market, an area where we’ve seen the most significant financing gaps for high growth companies. Seeking to increase funding to support their growth has been essential for our economy.

However, as always, new challenges await and to secure Scotland’s economic prosperity, we need to increase the available funding options for companies who are at the next stage in their growth journey, and ready to scale. Our most recent initiative is aimed at delivering exactly that - investment of scale from experienced Fund Managers who bring more than just deep pockets.

Utilising funding secured under the Government’s Scottish Growth Scheme, this initiative is an innovative way to leverage funding from the European Investment Fund whilst also accessing their large number of Fund Manager relationships. This will enable Scottish SMEs (typically those demonstrating positive commercial traction and raising larger investment rounds) to secure significant later stage investment from EIF backed Fund Managers to support their scaling journey. The programme has the potential to secure at least £200m of growth capital for Scotland’s most ambitious companies.

We know that securing the available finance in Scotland requires the efforts and co-ordination of a number of players from the companies and their advisors to existing investors and funders, alongside additional support from Scottish Enterprise. As part of our work on this Programme, we will work with those interested companies looking for scale up capital to:

• prepare them for engaging with Fund Managers,

• provide advice and support in identifying and engaging with appropriate and relevant investors

• prepare investment ‘teasers’ and;

• access pitching masterclasses

to maximise the potential for companies to successfully raise available capital.

Many Scottish companies are successfully achieving significant growth through existing public-sector mechanisms, but we’re keen to increase this number. As well as the additional direct positive economic impacts this funding would create, it will further raise Scotland’s profile in a fast moving and highly competitive global marketplace.

These solutions are only able to drive economic impact with a pipeline of growth companies and supportive investors; therefore, we continue to engage with new and existing interested parties to help maximise the opportunity this new initiative provides.

For further information and details of other funds available including the Scottish Co-investment Fund, Scottish Venture Fund and the Energy Investment Fund please visit https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/support-for-businesses/funding-and-grants/accessing-finance-and-attracting-investment or email scottishinvestmentbank@scotent.co.uk.