in General
Surgical Holdings Selected for Growth Builder UK
We are delighted to announce that Surgical Holdings has been selected to be part of the first cohort of Growth Builder UK http://www.growth-builder.com/ .
48 businesses have been selected to participate in the 12-month programme. The first of its kind to work with Government, universities, entrepreneurs and leading UK corporates, Growth Builder has been built specifically to help established British businesses that want to take on the next stage of growth.
The companies were picked based on existing proven successes and their potential for further growth by a panel of esteemed industry experts, including David Chapman at the UCL School of Management; Paola Cuneo at UKTI; and Alistair Brew at Business Growth Fund. The panel was looking for businesses with either £1.5million revenue or 20 staff and which have grown by over 20% per year for the past two years.
The 48 businesses will enjoy unrivalled access to Government, university innovation, corporate expertise, investors and successful entrepreneurs, including programme ambassadors like Brent Hoberman (lastminute.com, made.com, Founders Forum & Founders Factory), Sherry Coutu CBE (Founders4Schools), Sarah Wood (Unruly) and Ed Wray (Betfair). Dale Murray CBE (Sussex Place Ventures), Simon Devonshire OBE (Entrepreneur in residence at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills), Glen Calvert (Affectv), Brynne Herbert (MOVE Guides) and Neill Ricketts (Versarien plc) are the latest successful entrepreneurs to join the programme as ambassadors.
The programme has been designed by UCL, Natwest, UKTI, BT, PIE Mapping, Fast Growth Forum, the UK Business Angels Association and Loughborough University. This is the first time Government, entrepreneurs, universities and leading UK corporates have joined forces to help British growth businesses.
James Sherwin-Smith, CEO of Growth Street said: “As an alternative finance platform dedicated to helping SMEs finance and grow their business, we are delighted to be selected for Growth Builder. We believe strongly in mentorship and are excited to have found a programme that is specific to our stage of growth.”
Ben Fletcher, chairman of Growth Builder, commented: “Since launching the Call for Applications in February, we’ve been delighted with the calibre and number of applications received. This programme was built because we believed there was a need to help already established businesses achieve their next level of growth – be that launching into a new sector, geography or attracting big contracts. On average applicants were already hitting revenues of £4.5m, backing our belief. We’re looking forward to bringing together the first cohort with Government, universities, entrepreneurs and leading UK corporates at the first workshop on the 4th May.”
Sherry Coutu CBE, serial entrepreneur and investor, commented: “In my 2014 Scale-Up Report we identified a need to support rapidly expanding ‘scale-up’ companies to create a significant proportion of the UK’s economic growth; RBS analysis suggested an additional 238,000 jobs and £38 billion additional turnover is possible if we reverse the ‘scale up gap’. In this report I called for Government, entrepreneurs, educators, investors and large corporates to work together to support these businesses. With this in mind, it’s great to see the launch of an initiative like Growth Builder and I look forward to working with the 48 businesses over the coming 12 months and to celebrating every single job they create by fulfilling more and more customers orders from all over the world in coming years.”