Marking the tenth anniversary of its Accelerator today (March 27), NatWest Group, of which Royal Bank of Scotland is a part, is announcing its ambition to significantly expand its support to UK businesses by offering 10,000 entrepreneurs the chance to join its Accelerator community in 2025, while setting out a long-term strategy to support the UK’s growth goals through new university partnerships.
Since the programme was founded in Birmingham in 2015, the bank’s Accelerator has grown its hub network to 12 sites across the UK. These hubs have supported 9,737 businesses since 2015, raising over £684 million in investment and creating over 12,000 jobs.
The first to launch in Scotland was in Glasgow in 2016, and now, almost ten years on, Royal Bank, as part of NatWest Group, will be partnering with up to 10 UK universities to open new business accelerators in the next three years. This investment in the bank’s accelerator programme will support thousands more entrepreneurs from across the UK to run and grow their businesses.
Universities have become a key focus for the Government’s industrial strategy, which recognises that R&D-led and innovation-centred concepts have a significant role to play in accelerating economic growth. This investment by NatWest in the UK’s university ecosystem will support entrepreneurs to commercialise their ideas, bringing the bank’s expertise in funding, selling and leading to bear upon their journeys to growth.
Through these new partnerships, the bank also aims to support high growth businesses who, with the correct support, could experience rapid expansion in their market share, revenue or workforce over a sustained period. The bank wants to target businesses in the ‘innovation economy’ in particular, in sectors such as Technology, Healthcare Tech, Life Sciences and Fintech, as these sectors offer considerable potential to the growth of the UK economy.
Robert Begbie, CEO of NatWest’s Commercial & Institutional franchise, said:
“It’s a testament to how much the Accelerator has achieved that today we are setting out plans for its expansion – starting with our ambition of supporting up to 10,000 entrepreneurs in 2025.
“As the UK’s biggest business bank we are ambitious for the UK and believe that by unlocking the potential of entrepreneurs we can support sustained economic growth. The next stage of the Accelerator’s expansion will involve partnering with more UK universities, combining our strengths to help entrepreneurs commercialise their ideas and kickstart economic growth.”
Royal Bank’s Scottish Accelerator hubs are based in St Andrew Square in Edinburgh and Queen Street in Glasgow.
In Scotland, Royal Bank has a strong relationship with the country’s higher education institutions. In 2022 it entered into a £1.5m partnership with the University of Edinburgh to drive colleague and customer education and awareness surrounding opportunities in sustainability.
Earlier this month, Royal Bank of Scotland announced a new partnership with Scotland’s Smart Things Accelerator Centre (STAC). STAC works with the University of Glasgow and is focused on deep tech and AI start-ups.
The partnership with Royal Bank’s Glasgow Accelerator will provide businesses operating within the deep and advanced technology sector the opportunity to benefit from bank support whilst providing bank colleagues with greater knowledge and understanding of this growing market.
