A total of 40 companies from across Scotland will participate in this fully-funded initiative, designed to accelerate the growth of early-stage businesses and help them scale. The programme will feature a combination of online and in-person modules covering topics such as fundraising, valuation, cost of capital, people planning, leadership, sales, and marketing.

Founder of THF, Sir Tom Hunter, expressed his enthusiasm for the promising companies participating in the programme.

Mr Hunter said: “When we launched this we did wonder if a gap existed in provision in support of potentially scaling early stage businesses and we got the answer!

Scaling businesses move the economic dial and the fact our judges deem forty companies with that potential is incredibly positive for Scotland. Indeed those that didn’t qualify this time were either too early stage or pre revenue but showed real promise and we hope to welcome them back in future.

As a philanthropy we are happy to step in where gaps exist as we have done with our scale-up programmes.”

Ana Stewart, applications judge and partner at EOS Advisory, highlighted the impressive quality and depth of ideas presented by the businesses and noted that 35% of applications were from female-led entrepreneurial businesses, with 50% of them qualifying for the programme.

Ms Stewart said: “The quality and depth of ideas from these businesses was very impressive and we see real potential for many of them to go to scale.

“As highlighted in my recent independent report, we must create clear pathways that connect the dots for our early stage entrepreneurs to help them navigate through their journey to growth and this pre-scaler programme does just that.”

Evelyn McDonald, CEO of Scottish EDGE, added: “I was delighted to see around 50% of the applications came from Scottish EDGE winners looking to take the next step forward in their business journey.

“Being an entrepreneur is often a lonely business and core to this programme will be peer-to-peer learning and support, precisely what’s often needed for businesses on a growth trajectory.”

Originally up to twenty pre-scaling businesses were to be selected for the first cohort by four judges, Chris van der Kuyl, principal of Chroma Ventures; Ms Stewart, partner at EOS Advisory; Evelyn McDonald, CEO of Scottish EDGE and Ewan Hunter, CEO of THF. Two cohorts of twenty will now participate.

Participating entrepreneurs can expect to commit up to 5 days in total to the programme starting in May this year and concluding in September where they will have the option to pitch to a panel of potential investors.