Scottish EDGE the UK’s biggest business funding competition is back for Round 19 with applications open now to businesses of every kind across Scotland.
The competition aims to identify and support Scotland’s up-and-coming, innovative, high-growth entrepreneurial talent – across every business sector, with awards of up to £150,000.
Funded by the Hunter Foundation, the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and private donors, the competition is delivered twice per year and has to date supported 395 early stage Scottish businesses with over £15 million in award funding.
Scottish EDGE consists of three competition categories:
- Scottish EDGE
- Young EDGE
- Wild Card EDGE
Within the main Scottish EDGE category, the are five special awards for a creative business, (Creative EDGE), a social enterprise, (Social Enterprise EDGE), a circular focused business, (Circular Economy EDGE), a commercial product-based business, (STV Growth EDGE), and a biotech focused business (IBioIC EDGE).
Scottish Edge 19
Launched on 11th January, Scottish EDGE 19 will continue with the Royal Bank of Scotland supported Net Zero EDGE award which had its debut at COP26 last year, and supports Scotland’s target to be net zero by 2045 by awarding up to £100,000 to businesses tackling the climate emergency.
Scottish Enterprise has extended its contribution of £75,000 in the Young EDGE category for both rounds 19 and 20 following the positive impact of the initiative in previous rounds, doubling the number of Young EDGE winners from seven to fourteen.
The additional funding from Royal Bank of Scotland and Scottish Enterprise compliments the £1,000,000 boost led by The Hunter Foundation from several of Scotland’s leading entrepreneurs last year and brings the total prize pot to up to £1,500,000.
Awards For Every Business
The Scottish EDGE suite awards now consist of the core Scottish EDGE, Young EDGE and Wild Card EDGE categories, as well as the specialist category awards: Net Zero EDGE (supported by Royal Bank of Scotland), Social Enterprise EDGE (supported by Postcode Innovation Trust), Circular Economy EDGE (supported by Zero Waste Scotland), STV Growth EDGE (supported by STV), Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre EDGE (supported by IBioIC) and Creative EDGE.
If you are keen to apply and want to find out more then your first step to success could be to attend the Scottish EDGE virtual application workshop (Jan 25th) to get advice on crafting that perfect application.
Apply here before 15th February.
