New PwC appointments target Scottish target start-up and scale-up business

PwC in Scotland has announced two new appointments to further help Scotland’s growing start-up and scale-up sectors.

Ian Marshall joins the firm as Scottish lead for their new My Financepartner offering, which offers a low-cost suite of accounting and business advisory services.

The suite includes cloud-based accounting software, state of the art management information reporting, payroll and all of the traditional accounting and tax services that small businesses need to grow.

The low-cost offering aims to work either as part of an existing in-house finance team or as an alternative to hiring one at all.

Mr Marshall said: “Scale-ups and startups are an ever-increasing part of the Scottish scene and it makes sense to have a service that can help them at these critical stages. Very often these companies don’t want to bear the cost of full-time finance staff but see the need for accurate reporting on a regular basis so My Financepartner provides this while also being a useful entry point for access to not only accountants but other PwC experts in useful and relevant fields like R&D and corporate finance.

“It’s the best combination of software and people skills.”

Lindsay Gardiner, regional chair for PwC in Scotland said: “Some people may wonder why PwC is offering packages that are replacing the traditional accountant offering but business in Scotland is changing and we have to change with it - if not lead the changes. Offerings like My Financepartner allow us to grow as an overall professional services firm, help an important sector in Scotland and allow our teams to use technology in a way that helps clients.

“Ian has a very interesting background having trained as a CA and then working in large businesses before moving into a specialist business consultancy role helping SME’s and early stage fast growth businesses so I wish him all the best in this new role.”

In addition to Ian Marshall’s appointment, PwC director Ian Logan has been appointed head of the PwC Scottish Valuations team, which has now returned to full strength with a series of appointments.

The valuations team will also be looking to help startups and scale-ups with a tool called Emerging Company Analysis.

This supports young companies raising funding after the seed stage, for investments typically in the range of £2m and £10m.

Mr Logan said: “In Scotland we now have the largest valuations team out of the big four firms and of many second-tier professional services companies. What we’re looking to do is show scale-ups and start-ups strategic ways to drive value and growth. It’s an exciting area to be working in at the moment as there’s a lot of energy in Scotland just now.”