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ScaleUp Institute endorses the Shott Scale Up Accelerator in its 2021 ScaleUp Annual Review, published on 9 November
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Application deadline for the Shott Scale Up Accelerator is extended until 8 December, 4pm – apply here.
The Royal Academy of Engineering’s Enterprise Hub is delighted to reveal that the Shott Scale Up Accelerator (formerly known as the SME Leaders programme) has received a full endorsement from the ScaleUp Institute, a not-for-profit organisation working to make the UK a world-leading nation in scaling up companies.
Since the start of the programme in 2016, we have supported over 100 leaders of high growth SMEs, who have gone on to raise over £308 million of equity investment, £54 million in grants, and have increased their business valuations by £421 million in total. Our participants typically double staff numbers in 12 months, and credit the programme with significant improvements in their leadership mindset, strategy, and skills.
The Institute’s endorsement is a testament to the excellent support and results the programme consistently delivers and will help to further establish the Enterprise Hub as the go to place for engineering and technology SME leaders in the UK. The endorsement follows a recent funding boost from the Enterprise Hub’s founder and inaugural chair Ian Shott CBE FREngwhich has enabled the team to further enhance the Hub’s SME leadership support offer.
David Shoesmith, Head of Projects and Programmes at the ScaleUp Institute said: “We were impressed by the way the Royal Academy of Engineering makes use of its Fellowship to inspire business-minded engineers into building high growth businesses. Given the impact the programme has generated to date we are pleased to endorse it fully in 2021." Shoesmith highlighted that thanks to a significant donation the Academy received this year it has allowed for refinement of its focus on scaling up, also supported by the recent rebranding of its SME Leaders Programme, to the ‘Shott Scale Up Accelerator’.
Mahmoda Ali, Head of Enterprise Hub, said: ”The Academy is delighted with this recognition of the Shott Scale Up Accelerator and especially to have our mission recognised and our significant impacts on the SME ecosystem shared so widely in the 2021 annual review. After observing the gap in support for engineering SMEs in the UK ecosystem, the Enterprise Hub team decided that our mission was to create a programme that was tailored to bridge the ‘access gaps’ to respond better to the SME leader’s needs.” Ali added that the Enterprise Hub will continue to develop the programme and to support UK founders and decisions makers while also connecting them to Academy Fellows and peer entrepreneurs in the UK and beyond.
Shott Scale Up Accelerator testimonials:
Mathew Holloway, CEO of Q-Bot and an alumnus of the programme, said:
" I benefitted from a series of leadership training and mentoring programmes which allowed me to reflect on my own leadership style and learn from my peers. I feel very lucky to have benefited in this way, by meeting and learning from a wide range of experts as well as my fellow cohort of entrepreneurs.”
Giorgia Longobardi, CEO and founder of Cambridge GaN Devices and an alumna of the programme said :
“The programme has been instrumental for my growth as a leader and consequently the growth of the company. The network of mentors and like-minded entrepreneurs is priceless. Being a leader is not easy - we often do not have someone to turn to in difficult times. The coaching sessions has provided me with a safe space to share some of the challenges and to get a different perspective.”
About the Shott Scale Up Accelerator
The Shott Scale Up Accelerator, a six-month programme run twice a year, offers a bespoke support package to individuals in decision making roles, to develop their leadership skills in high-growth engineering and technology SMEs. The programme offers a £10,000 training grant towards leadership courses of the awardee’s choice, a broad curriculum of training and workshops, specialist business mentoring, one to one development coaching, and access to an exceptional network of highly established experts, entrepreneurs and industry leaders from the Academy’s Fellowship. The Accelerator works to help scale up engineering businesses with innovations that have a positive impact on society, such as AI, digital and advanced computing, energy, bioinformatics and smart machines – technologies of strategic importance for UK Government.
The programme is currently open for applications until 8 December, 4pm – apply here.
About the ScaleUp Institute
The ScaleUp Institute is a private sector, not-for-profit organisation. Using the recommendations and targets set out in The Scale-Up Report, (commissioned by the Coalition Government in 2014) the Institute collaborates with policy makers, corporate partners and educational establishments to ensure learnings are taken forward, systematic barriers to scaling up are overcome, and that progress is monitored to keep the UK on track to becoming the best place in the world to scale up companies.
The Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub supports the UK’s brightest technology and engineering entrepreneurs to realise their potential.
We run three programmes for entrepreneurial engineers at different career stages. Each one offers equity-free funding, an extended programme of mentorship and coaching, and a lifetime of support through connection to an exceptional community of engineers and innovators.
The Enterprise Hub focuses on supporting individuals and fostering their potential in the long term, taking nothing in return. This sets us apart from the usual ‘accelerator’ model. The Enterprise Hub’s programmes last between 6 and 12 months, and all programmes give entrepreneurs lifelong access to an unrivalled community of mentors and alumni.
Our goal is to encourage creativity and innovation in engineering for the benefit of all. By fostering lasting, exceptional connections between talent and expertise, we aim to create a virtuous cycle of innovation that can deliver on this ambition.
The Enterprise Hub was formally launched in April 2013. Since then, we have supported over 270 researchers, recent graduates and SME leaders to start up and scale up businesses that can give practical application to their inventions. We’ve awarded over £9.5 million in grant funding, and our Hub Members have gone on to raise over £575 million in additional funding.