The Royal Bank of Scotland has relaunched its enterprise programme to support small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) progressing into scale-up businesses - as well as fintech, climate-focused and B-Corp-certified firms.
The move follows the bank’s report into SME recovery in the UK revealing that scale-ups were 50% more productive than SMEs, but at present only 2.5% of all businesses fall into the scale-up category.
It found that transforming a greater proportion of SMEs into scale-ups, and driving a shift towards sustainability, were two priorities which could help unlock £140bn of economic growth by 2030.
RBS defines scale-ups as businesses that grow their turnover or employment by more than 20% each year.
It will also commit at least a quarter of the space on the programme to climate-focussed businesses whose main objective relates to environmentally sustainable practices.
RBS and its parent NatWest plan to support more than 1,400 businesses at different stages of their growth through the programme across Scotland and the rest of the UK. It is open to applications from all Scottish SMEs from today, with businesses joining the programme in June.
The bank has also created a series of new roles in Scotland to ensure these businesses are given appropriate support.
New local enterprise managers, regional ecosystem managers and entrepreneur acceleration managers will aim to give businesses the guidance they need through coaching and networks that are relevant to their location and sector.
Andrew Harrison, head of business banking and entrepreneurship at RBS, said: “We’re relaunching our Royal Bank Enterprise programme to help more SMEs reach this next level of growth and productivity.
“Combined with increased representation and support for female and BAME led businesses throughout our new cohort - which we aim to ensure are at least 60% and 20% respectively - and a focus on businesses with sustainability and purpose at their core.”
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