A new business report has highlighted the need to provide better support mechanisms for companies in Scotland to grow to globally significant size and scale.

Overcoming investment challenges, ‘red tape’, a declining number of ‘headquartered in Scotland’ businesses, gaps in leadership and skills, and overreliance on public funding are among the factors holding back company growth, according to the new report ‘Scaling Scotland: Building the Engine for the Next 50 Years of Prosperity’.

The report, put together by former Skyscanner C-suite executive Shane Corstorphine and a high-level panel of business leaders, has addressed what is increasingly recognised as a significant challenge for Scotland’s business ecosystem – how to help more of the country’s most promising, ambitious startups grow into large, globally competitive companies. 

It highlights a long, slow decline in business activity, which was at its height in the 1990s, when global firms HQ’d in Scotland spanned multiple sectors, including finance, insurance, transport, engineering and energy, media and retail, and manufacturing and technology.

However, since then the report notes a ‘Silicon Glen in retreat’ from 2000-2006, the financial crisis in 2007 and capital flight from 2008 to 2016, and a loss of ‘economic anchors’ from 2016 until today, with the continued ‘attrition’ of major companies.

Other problems include a ‘very limited pool of capital’ and a ‘confusing support landscape’, with ‘no single door’ for founders to access help in scaling their businesses. Entrepreneurial ‘culture’ was also identified as a ‘missing foundation’.

The report states: “A supportive culture shapes ambition, resilience, and recycling of talent and capital. Without it, our ecosystem risks unintentionally encouraging caution and missing the chance to turn more of our promising young
businesses into intentional, globally competitive scale-ups.”

The report, underpinned by in-depth interviews with more than 75 founders, business figures, and investors, says that Scotland must address four mutually reinforcing pillars – around business capability, talent, funding, and market expansion and internationalisation – to break through Scotland’s scale-up barriers and unlock long-term growth.  

Some of the key recommendations include:

  • The creation of a ‘Scottish Scale-Up Enablement Hub’ to consolidate a fragmented support system led by a blend of private and public sector leaders; concierge-style support for founders;
  • Attracting both returning Scots and international hires;
  • Ensuring boards have stronger scale-up experience;
  • Reforming public co-investment and redirecting more capital to the highest potential companies;
  • Expanding access to high-value growth capital (£3-10m);
  • Increasing venture debt deals and preserving greater equity for founders;
  • Creating a ‘scale-up lane’ in government to fast-track visas and procurement;
  • Commissioning a national growth culture report to set out a 10-20 year strategy to support the creation of world-leading companies. 

Shane Corstorphine, Chair of the Scottish Scale-up Panel, said: “Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is at an exciting and pivotal point, and the choices we make now will shape our economy, our communities, and our place in the world for the next 50 years.  We can picture a Scotland where ambition is normal, not exceptional. A place where entrepreneurs are backed with the right talent, boards, and capital to compete confidently on the world stage.”

Scotland is estimated to have around 1,500 scale-ups with revenues up to £5 million, with 280 in the £5-10m bracket, 250 between £10-50m, and just 85 with turnover of over £50 million.  The Scaling Scotland report, in line with data from the UK’s ScaleUp Institute, indicates that closing the scale-up gap could result in more than 100,000 high-value jobs and over £20 billion in additional annual company revenues.

Corstorphine added: “As things stand, our entrepreneurial landscape acts like a startup, whereas it needs to behave like a scale-up.  Much as a rapidly growing business must focus on strong leadership, strategy and outcomes, so must Scotland’s entrepreneurial community.  Fundamentally, this must be driven by leaders in both the private and public sectors.” 

Ross McNairn, the CEO and founder of Wordsmith AI, a legal tech startup that is scaling globally from a base in Scotland and secured a $25 million series A round led by Index Ventures in June, said: “We need to stop making ambition a dirty word. We are going to be left in the dirt if we don’t wake up to the changes that are happening to the global economy.  AI is a high end talent game. Alienate it and watch other countries drain you dry.”

Keith Bradbury, Co-CEO and co-founder of Ember, the UK’s first all-electric intercity bus service that secured a £11 million series A round led by Inven Capital in 2024, said: “Scotland’s challenge isn’t starting companies; it’s scaling them. We were always building for a £1 billion plus business even back when we only had £5m revenue.

“That requires patient capital that backs the long game, not just another incremental round. But the structured finance options available are often buried in red tape and not designed for this kind of company-building. We aren’t losing our best companies to failure; we’re losing them to ecosystems that make scaling easier. This report identifies the right problems – now we need some urgency to spur on real action.”

The ‘Scaling Scotland’ report has been submitted to the Scottish Government and Chief Entrepreneur, Ana Stewart, for review. 

Ana Stewart, who recently set out her priorities for Scotland’s most ambitious companies by calling for a sharper focus on rapidly scaling firms, said: “Supporting scale-ups is one of my priorities as Chief Entrepreneurship Advisor, so the Scaling Scotland report, which is focused on the Scottish landscape, will contribute to that broader conversation.”

Stewart said: “Scotland has world-class entrepreneurs. We need to ensure they have the support they need to break through and grow at pace. Working collaboratively, I believe we can make Scotland Europe’s best HQ for growing a business.”