The Royal Bank of Scotland has today (14 September 2026) published a major report into Scotland and the UK’s innovation economy and access to public funding for high growth businesses– From Innovation to Impact: Translating the UK's Untapped Innovation Cohort into Regional Growth.
The report, produced by the Royal Bank of Scotland using data from Beauhurst, found that Scotland was home to 1,737 innovative businesses, 59% (1,027) of whom are recipients of public funding and 367 were university spinouts. Only London had a higher number of university spinouts than Scotland of the UK’s regions and nations.
Scottish firms also punched above the UK average on commercialisation. 31% of Scottish grant-backed firms have secured follow-on equity investment, compared with 26% across the UK. Scotland's grant-backed firms also secured one of the highest levels of follow-on investment outside London and the South East.
In total, Scotland's innovative firms attracted £6.4 billion in equity investment since 2011. The report highlighted energy transition, life sciences, advanced manufacturing and digital technologies as areas of particular success in commercialising innovation.
Scotland’s untaped innovation cohort, that is those businesses that continue to trade but have failed to secure follow-on investment, achieve an exit or demonstrate a scale-up signal, at 34.9% is lower than the 38.1% rate across the UK. However, this still represents 358 businesses, suggesting that there remains significant potential to generate additional growth from existing innovative businesses.
Within Scotland, the West had the highest amount of innovative businesses with 558, with the East being narrowly behind with 511. Aberdeenshire had 280 innovative businesses and Tayside had 254. The Highland and Islands had 98 innovative businesses, despite its smaller population, showing that innovative businesses exist in every part of the country.
Despite having lower numbers, innovative businesses in the East were more successful at attracting public grant funding than those in the West, with 366 grant recipients against 328. Tayside businesses were also more successful than those in Aberdeenshire, with 129 and 120 respectively. Despite having the lowest number of grant recipients, innovative businesses in the Highlands and Islands were only behind those in the East of Scotland, in attracting grant funding as a share of total innovative businesses.
The report identifies a challenge of ensuring that more businesses can access the finance, networks, talent and commercial opportunities needed to grow, suggesting that successful commercialisation and innovation adoption are just as important as new discoveries. It recommends strengthening access to growth capital, supporting commercialisation pathways and helping innovative firms build the capabilities needed to scale would help more businesses to move beyond the research stage and achieve sustainable growth.
Darren Pirie, Head of Accelerator and Partnerships, Royal Bank of Scotland said: “Our new report highlights that not only is Scotland's tradition for invention and innovation alive and well but that our scaling businesses support ecosystem is also very strong.
“Yet we cannot be complacent. We need to have a laser focus on delivering new opportunities and platforms for high growth Scottish businesses, so they can access public funding and attain the exposure necessary to attract the private investment they need to expand and create growth.
“As a Glasgow citizen, it is great to see Scotland's largest city and the West being a key hub for innovative businesses. However, as our report shows, high potential firms and scaling success can be found in every part of Scotland.”
Michelle Ferguson OBE, Director of Scotland at the CBI, said: “Scotland has never had a shortage of good ideas, and the numbers here confirm it, with 1,737 innovative businesses across the country and £6.4 billion of equity raised since 2011. The harder question is the 358 firms still trading that have not secured follow-on investment, and that is where Scotland's unrealised growth sits. Our members point consistently to two constraints, later stage growth capital and competition for skilled people, and if government, industry and the financial sector move on both we can turn more of Scotland's inventiveness into jobs and economic opportunity for every part of the country.”
Dr Evelyn McDonald, CEO of Scottish EDGE, said: “Royal Bank of Scotland’s report provides a valuable picture of both the strength of Scotland’s innovation economy and the opportunity that still exists to help more businesses scale.
“The fact that 358 innovative Scottish businesses have been identified as having untapped growth potential should be seen as a real opportunity. We know from our own experience at Scottish EDGE that access to the right funding, networks and support at the right time can make a significant difference to a company’s trajectory.
"Our collective challenge now is to ensure that strong bases of innovation have an equally strong infrastructure for converting innovation into commercial opportunities, clearer pathways to investment, and the support needed to build sustainable, high-growth companies here in Scotland."
