Britain is open for business – now let’s scale it up

Jules looks at how the UK can help start-ups build on their potential and scale up to the next level.

British business is presently treading a fruitful path. Financial figures from the US reveal that the UK economy – with 2.6% GDP growth in 2014 to the US’s 2.4% – is now the fastest growing amongst developed nations.

A key driver for this growth is the rise of the UK tech sector and the explosion of start-ups that power it – known collectively as the digital economy. The digital economy is expected to contribute £12 billion to the nation by 2024 and no equivalent sector in the G20 is growing as rapidly.

Yet for all the good news, we need to keep our eyes on the horizon. How can we guarantee that the start-ups helping deliver prosperity aren’t just a flash in the pan?

Struggling to bridge the scale-up gap

Compared to the situation for many of our cousins on the continent, it’s relatively straightforward to kick off a company here in Blighty – a fantastic plus for tech firms who need to be able to move quickly and with agility.

However, according to a 2014 report from Sherry Coutu, CBE, the UK trails behind the US and many other major economies in scaling up its firms.

The report defines a scale-up as: “…an enterprise with average annualised growth in employees or turnover greater than 20% per annum over a three year period…”

Coutu’s estimates that a one per cent boost to the number of companies in the scale-up population could drive 238,000 jobs and contribute £38 billion in three years. It’s clear then that a key component of the UK’s continued growth is bridging this ‘scale-up gap’.

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