The Hunter Foundation (THF) has launched the next round of its search for Scotland’s potential mega-companies to join the ScaleUpScotland 2.0 programme, which organisers say has already created £1 billion of additional turnover and 5,000 new jobs throughout the country.

First launched in 2022, the programme was developed based on analysis of the challenges facing businesses as they mature from start-up and enter growth phase. The aim is to help them achieve annual revenues of £100 million each.

Sir Tom Hunter, the founder of THF, said ScaleUpScotland has played a small but "pivotal" role in the success of previous participants.


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"Crucially the peer-to-peer support the programme enables is fundamental to a money can’t buy support network for our entrepreneurs," he added. "Combine that with brilliant speakers who have been there and done it and it's compelling, we believe, and utterly necessary for Scotland’s economic growth.”  

Participating companies must be headquartered in Scotland with current revenues typically in excess of £10m, a record of strong year-on-year growth, plus the potential and ambition to achieve significant revenue growth within the next five years. Biotech and other companies with high valuations but low or no revenues will also be considered.

The programme is open to the chief executive and executive leadership teams of up to 12 businesses, and places a strong emphasis on peer-to-peer learning. Those selected will initially undergo a "deep dive" to identify and align the team on the specific challenges and opportunities facing the entrepreneurial leader, the collective executive team, and the individual functional leaders.

Chief executives will participate in quarterly residential retreats at Blair Estate over a 12-month period where they will experience a blend of masterclasses, focused dinners and peer-to-peer collaboration led by Sir Tom and leading entrepreneurs from the global stage. These retreats will be interspersed with optional afternoon sessions and early evening dinners hosted by participating companies to explore current challenges and opportunities.