The Scaleup Programme: for high potential scaleup businesses
This programme is delivered by Innovate UK Business Growth.
Delivering growth at scale is at the heart of Innovate UK’s emerging strategy for business innovation in the UK. Innovate UK Business Growth is a key enabler of this strategic priority and through the Scaleup Programme, helps the highest potential businesses realise their ambitions.
Read about independent research that demonstrates the programme’s high return on investment.
Scaleups have a disproportionately large economic impact: They bring solutions to market, create highly skilled jobs, drive up productivity and maintain UK competitiveness. It is incumbent on us as the UK’s innovation agency to develop businesses that grow through innovation and can go on to do so at a meaningful scale.
Our bespoke, scaleup director-led support helps to address the key scaleup challenges, including access to markets of the future, access to connections and resources and attracting growth capital.
The most outstanding scaling businesses that are disrupting their industries, capable of internationalisation and achieving over 50% growth p.a. are invited to join our Scaleup Programme for enhanced support.
How does it work?
Innovate UK Business Growth’s highly regarded Scaleup Programme provides one-to-one, bespoke and funded support centred around innovative scaleups’ specific needs. It is available to those scaleup companies achieving, or with the potential for, 50% compound annual growth rates (CAGR) and over.
Participants are assigned a Scaleup Director who works with them as their designated single point of contact, to identify key scale up challenges and enablers that the collective resources, skills and connectivity of a ‘Scaleup Board’ can address. The Scaleup Directors on this Board provide a matrix of skills and connectivity across domains such as finance, M&A, international markets, IP, supply chains, scale up leadership and talent management.
A high level Strategic Advisory Board in turn provides another layer of connectivity and access to resources.
Selection process
Expression of Interest
Following an initial call with a Scaleup Director to discuss your strategic business growth plans and the Programme’s specific value added support, you will be invited and supported to submit an Expression Of Interest (EOI). Please contact us to initiate the process, or if you are already working with an Innovate UK Business Growth innovation and growth specialist, please go through them.
Evaluation by Scaleup Board
Our expert Delivery Board evaluates all EOIs for eligibility. Those EOIs scoring above set thresholds are collectively considered by the Board for progression to the third selection stage: A site visit by two Scaleup Directors.
'Deep Dive' site visit
During the site visit, we will get to know more about your business and start mapping out your scaleup aspirations and challenges in order to compile a detailed report, which will comprise the basis of your final stage selection.
Scaleup Board final evaluation
After the visit, your Scaleup Directors will present your company, via the detailed report to the rest of the board, who in turn collectively decide if you are to be accepted onto the programme.
Implementation
If your application is successful, you will be assigned a Scaleup Director to develop and deliver your bespoke support action plan, addressing the challenges and enablers agreed with you at the site visit.
Scaleup Directors
Meet our Scaleup Directors, who work with clients on the Scaleup Programme. With a wealth of experience between them in commercialising and launching new innovations, collaborating with UK and international partners, protecting, and exploiting intellectual property, fundraising, and implementing finance strategies, they are uniquely positioned to help companies excel on their scaling journey.
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Alumni Community
Every programme participant, past and present, is invited to become a member of the Scaleup Programme Alumni Community, which will convene scaleup peers and ecosystem players for connections and knowledge-exchange that will continue to propel growth journeys.
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Scaleup success stories
ICAX
Joining Innovate UK's Scaleup Programme put cleantech company ICAX in a very strong position to take a new domestic heat pump product to market.
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Talent Intuition
Being invited onto the Scaleup Programme was 'the best thing that has happened to us at this stage in our growth', said the CEO of Talent Intuition.
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Photocentric
With help from Innovate UK's Scaleup Programme, an innovative Cambridgeshire company has restructured for rapid growth.