The recently-appointed CEO of a startup accelerator scheme has vowed to take entrepreneurship to ‘new heights’ in Scotland.
Rachel Ross, who took on the top job at Elevator earlier this month, is doubling down on her vision of supporting emerging businesses even as the economy faces ‘challenging’ conditions.
Ross, who is potentially eyeing expanding Elevator’s remit UK-wide, with its co-designed business support programmes, said: “If you’re an entrepreneur or founder who wants to start or grow a business, and whether you’re in one of the main cities, urban fringes or fragile remote rural communities, we engage and support local entrepreneurs and small businesses on their growth trajectories.”
She added: “If we have a USP, it’s our ability to co-design best-of-class programmes with industry partners, working collaboratively with other ecosystem players, and building on our longstanding experience and expertise on the entrepreneurial scene to help Scotland’s regional economies flourish and create transformational impact for business owners.”
The private sector-led organisation currently operates across urban and rural Scotland, with a focus on community and regional engagement, supporting more than 9,000 startups over the last five years. It has also supported over 3,500 SMEs during that timespan.
Elevator’s list of industry partners includes Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), Business Gateway, Scottish Government, local government, Scottish Development International (SDI), Shell, Shetland Arts, Scottish EDGE, Pathways Forward, and the University of Dundee.
Ross says there will be an increasing focus on building the number of private sector organisations, universities and colleges that Elevator partners with.
She said: “What we’ve demonstrated in recent times is an agile and empathetic approach to curating programmes, accelerators, and events with multiple collaborating partners, and it’s this collaborative approach that is producing such strong results and outcomes.
“While we continue to work alongside organisations like Business Gateway, we see a big shift to how we can work alongside university, college, private sector, and membership organisations to help them deliver entrepreneurial-focused initiatives.”
In 2024, Elevator initiatives included the University of Dundee’s Centre for Entrepreneurship including the related Academic Accelerator, Scottish Enterprise’s Rural Leadership Programme, Digital Skills Tayside, SDI Amazon Accelerator, Regional EDGE in Dundee and Angus, IMPACT! programmes in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dundee via Scottish Government Ecosystem funding, Digital Skills for Tourism for Highlands and Islands (HIE), and the E3f programme for pre-start female entrepreneurs in Glasgow, Dundee, and Moray, funded by Pathways.
Ross said: “The UK is already braced for tough economic headwinds and building business resilience while unlocking opportunities will become essential requirements for businesses in 2025. Entrepreneurs are telling us that the economic environment is challenging, whether that’s access to finance, digital and AI skills, product development, or international market strategy and commercialisation – all areas that our team can assist business owners with.”
She added: “And while we’re industry sector agnostic, we are seeing a lot of activity in clean energy, agriculture innovation, and e-commerce.”
