AAB partners with Scottish EDGE

We have an exciting announcement! AAB are now a Scottish EDGE partner for upcoming rounds 19 and 20, supporting the next generation of high growth entrepreneurial businesses.

Scottish EDGE is the UK’s biggest business funding competition, aimed at identifying and supporting Scotland’s up-and-coming, innovative, high-growth entrepreneurial talent. 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 supported 395 early stage Scottish businesses with over £15m in award funding.

Scottish EDGE consists of three competition categories: Scottish EDGE, Young EDGE and Wild Card EDGE, and five special awards within the Scottish EDGE category 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).

In December 2021, a record-breaking £1.5 million was invested in a total of 42 businesses with innovative entrepreneurial potential in Round 18 as the latest winners of the Scottish EDGE Awards were revealed. As well as direct cash funding, EDGE winners benefit from training and support from carefully selected partner organisations.

Building and developing a team and having a robust, compliant, scalable and fit for purpose culture and HR and people strategy and framework in place at an early stage in a company’s journey creates competitive advantage and platform for growth. Employee engagement and a strong culture is a key differentiator when it comes to business growth and innovation.

We are proud to already work with many EDGE alumni as clients including Photon Force, Intebloc, Topolytocs and Treen, and all of our team are excited to help and support the upcoming finalists and winners. We will work with winners to provide a tailored HR support package and plan to support growth.

Recent independent impact research found that businesses that have received support from Scotland’s biggest business funding competition have helped generate more than 850 jobs and a GVA of £67.9 million, showcasing the fantastic impact and ROI Scottish EDGE has within Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Applications for Round 19 are now closed and following a robust judging process winners will be announced at the Final in May, which we look forward to attending.

About our People team

We are an independent professional HR consultancy with an established and strong track record in providing pragmatic and effective operational and strategic HR consultancy and employee relations support to a broad portfolio of clients.

We have a strong track record in providing commercial, pragmatic and effective HR advice and practical support to SME and early stage, high growth and investor-backed businesses including high growth technology, engineering and life sciences start-ups within Scotland’s leading Angel and Venture Capital investment portfolios.

We are very proud to be part of the first cohort of 20 values led, socially impactful businesses accepted onto the Unlocking Ambition Scottish Enterprise-backed programme for high growth, purpose-driven organisations. https://unlockingambition.scot/

To find out more about how we provide tailored hands on and fit for purpose HR support for innovative, high growth entrepreneurial businesses, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of the team – we’d love to hear from you!