Funding and grants
Accessing finance and attracting investment
Accessing finance and attracting investment
Our growth investments team can help you find sources of finance, engage with funders and secure investment to grow your business. Providing expert support and advice, we can help you access a range of funding options, including our own co-investment funding opportunities and loan funding.
Free expert support from our investments team
Our growth investments team (formerly the Scottish Investment Bank) is continuing to invest and support early-stage companies and the investment market, including inward investment opportunities.
Our financial readiness experts can offer support and advice and can help you access a range of funding, including bank funding, equity funding, loan funding and grants.
We'll help prepare your business to have the best chances of applying successfully for funding. We can:
- Guide you through the complexities of different funding options
- Find the right growth funding for you from the right funder
- Prepare your business to successfully access these funds
- Help you pitch to investors
Our co-investment funds
If your business has high growth potential, we can also offer co-investment funding. This is where we co-invest funds into your business alongside private investors, including business angels, angel syndicates, venture capital groups and corporate investors.
Scottish Co-Investment Fund
Are you a Scottish start-up, early-stage or growing company seeking investment to develop products and/or markets? We can match fund accredited investment partners to support your growth plans.
Scottish Venture Fund
Seeking funding to develop products and/or markets? This flexible equity gap fund invests alongside private sector investors, offering equity funding from £10,000 up to £2 million.
Energy Investment Fund (EIF)
Need funds to accelerate your next energy project? We’re your go-to contact for loans and equity for community and commercial renewable and low carbon energy projects across Scotland.
Loan funding
We can also provide loan funding. If you're a growth-focused Scottish company, the Scottish Loan Scheme can provide loan funding of £250,000 to £2 million.
Loans can be used for a variety of purposes, including:
- Working capital
- Capital expenditure
- Growth funding
- International expansion
- Marketing investment
Preparing your business to secure investment
We want to boost equity funding levels for globally ambitious Scottish companies, ensuring the right levels of funding, from the right sources, get to the right companies at the right time. We can help you:
- Build strong relationships with a range of international investors
- Identify the type of investor that's right for you
- Match and connect supply and demand based on investor preferences
Get in touch with our investment team
Not sure if investment funding is right for your business? Read about other businesses we've supported and how investment funding has helped them to grow and develop.
We also support companies we've invested in on an ongoing basis through portfolio management. Find out about companies we've supported.
Watch a video on how our growth investment activity works:
We also help you to:
- Increase your chances of securing the most appropriate package of finance for your needs
- Gain access to relevant public sector support
- Make your business ready to apply for funding
We've produced a series of guides on the different types of finance that could be used to fund your business. The guides also cover what you need to do before making finance applications.
We can provide insights into Scotland's risk finance market. Our market intelligence work provides companies and investors with market evidence as they plan for the future. This involves looking into the supply and demand for risk-based growth finance.
We look at Scotland’s finance market in areas that include:
- Year-to-year changes in deal sizes
- Sector investment
- Company growth stages
- Who has been investing in Scotland’s growth companies
- We also keep up-to-date with global and UK regional trends
The risk capital market in Scotland has grown over the past 6 years, with the underlying health of the market - where 99% of deals take place - almost doubling from 2013.
This is significant because many more ambitious Scottish companies are accessing growth finance, and serves as an important signal for existing and new investors.
Other sources of finance
Business grants
We're launching a simpler, more inclusive grant funding model that will help create jobs and a greener economy. Find out more about these changes, the alternative sources of funding you can access and the help we can offer.
LendingCrowd
We also provide funding into LendingCrowd, Scotland’s marketplace lender providing loans to SMEs.
Maven UK Regional Buyout Fund
Private equity funding of £5 million to £15 million for management buyouts (MBOs).
Interested in becoming an accredited investment partner?
If you become one of our accredited investment partners, we’ll match you with small and medium-sized businesses to help them reach their growth potential. We work with private sector investors from around the world and we're always keen to receive applications from a wide range of investors.
Our private investors include business angels, angel syndicates, venture capital groups and corporate investors.
If your application is successful, we'll work with you to identify investment opportunities, undertake due diligence and negotiate terms of any deal. If there's a funding gap, Scottish Enterprise will consider co-investing with you.
Contact our specialists
Contact our investment specialists to find out how we can help you secure the investment you need.