RBS to take successful business accelerator venture completely in-house

Entrepreneurial Spark and Royal Bank of Scotland have reached an agreement to transfer the renowned business accelerator, run jointly between the two for the past three years, in-house to the bank.

Since its launch in 2014 in Birmingham, Entrepreneurial Spark has grown to become the world’s largest free business accelerator after a further 11 hubs were opened throughout every region of the UK, and businesses supported by it have created 452 jobs at its Edinburgh hub and 422 at its Glasgow location.

Across ES’s Scottish operations, businesses have also raised more than £45 million in investment and are turning over in excess of £52 million.

Now, ES, which helped RBS set up the scheme and has provided much of the mentoring, says the entire programme will transfer to the bank in a move that will see RBS subsidiary Natwest take over the accelerator’s English hubs, and Ulster Bank take the reins in Belfast.

The news comes on the day that the partnership announces its latest and most impressive impact report to date, reporting £255 million in cumulative investment, 8,096 jobs created across the UK-wide hub network and supporting nearly 4,000 entrepreneurs.

As the partnership concluded its nation-wide rollout with the opening of their London hub at the end of 2017, focus has since shifted to allow both organisations to realise their wider ambitions in the entrepreneurship and growth mindset spaces.

Lucy-Rose Walker, CEO at Entrepreneurial Spark, said: “Over the last three years we have been on a mission to impact the lives of as many entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs as possible in order to create positive social change. NatWest gave us the opportunity to do that on a scale that we couldn’t have imagined when we first began this adventure, by tapping into their resource and expertise to unlock markets and provide locations for hubs across all four nations of the UK.”

“Now that we’ve completed the programme rollout, it’s a natural evolution for NatWest to run the accelerator now and continue the trajectory we’ve set. It seems only fitting that we’ve reached this agreement on the next chapter as we announce our most notable impact report to-date.”

Alison Rose, CEO of commercial and private banking at NatWest, said: “As the latest Impact Report clearly demonstrates, the comprehensive programme of free enablement, mentoring and bespoke coaching developed in partnership with Entrepreneurial Spark has revolutionised the way we support entrepreneurs, and is really working. We are committed to continuing this success, and through our UK-wide network of 12 business accelerator hubs, we will support and continue to change the lives of entrepreneurs by providing full wrap-around care to the UK’s most inspiring start-ups and high growth businesses. On behalf of everyone NatWest, I want to thank Entrepreneurial Spark for the past three years in partnership and wish them every success with their future ambitions.”