Scottish EDGE Round 16 Launched
Scottish EDGE is back for Round 16 of the competition and it is bigger and better than ever.
Last year saw 60 early-stage, exciting start-up Scottish businesses share in excess of £2m through the Scottish EDGE competition and the good news is Scottish EDGE is back for Round 16 of the competition and it is bigger and better than ever.
Scottish EDGE is delighted to add the exciting STV Growth EDGE award to the suite of existing awards which include the core Scottish EDGE, Young EDGE and Wild Card EDGE categories, as well as the specialist category awards: Higgs EDGE, Creative EDGE, Social Enterprise EDGE (sponsored by Postcode Innovation Trust) and Circular Economy EDGE (sponsored by Zero Waste Scotland).
Applications to Scottish EDGE Round 16 will be accepted through the competition online portal until 2pm on 27th Feb, requiring a completed application and a short video pitch.
Key additions and changes for this round include:
- STV Growth EDGE: The new STV Growth EDGE Award, introduced in partnership with STV, offers support to a winning consumer-based product business. The award comes in the form of £75,000 worth of airtime and a launch commercial to help grow the businesses, and this in-kind award comes in addition to any monetary Scottish EDGE prize
- Move to a 70% loan / 30% grant split: As a strong purpose-led organisation, Scottish EDGE have long had a desire to reduce the dependency on public sector funding. As such, for Round 16 of the competition the split for all Scottish EDGE category awards will follow current market trends and be 70% Loan / 30% Grant. Whilst this change helps Scottish EDGE’s drive towards self-sustainability, this also offers the winning businesses additional private-sector non-dilutive loan funding which can be utilised to grow their business but also match-fund other grant schemes where appropriate. All Young EDGE and Wild Card EDGE awards will remain as Grant only awards. (see P.22 of our brochure for more details).
- Impact / Strategic Focus – Scottish EDGE have a strong awareness that many businesses focus on key areas beyond sales turnover and profit. In this regard, an additional question has been added to the online application asking applicants to detail any “Social, Economic or Environmental impact your business delivers.” Whilst this question won’t directly impact on the EDGE assessment for this round (with the exception of Social Enterprise EDGE), we are keen to monitor where businesses are focused on key strategic areas such as; Fair Work, Workplace Diversity, Carbon Reduction, Rural Community, and etc.
If you are keen to apply and want to find out more then your first step to success could be to come along to one of the Scottish EDGE application workshops throughout the country to get advice on crafting that perfect application.
Application and Video Presentation Support Workshops:
- 14th Feb | 10am – Glasgow – Register HERE
- 17th Feb | 10am – Aberdeen – Register HERE
- Social Enterprise Workshop | 20th Feb | Edinburgh –Register HERE.
- 24th Feb | 12.30pm Dundee – Register HERE
Scottish EDGE: Social Enterprise Workshop
Social Enterprise EDGE, supported by The People’s Postcode Lottery UK (Postcode Innovation Trust), is aimed at Social Enterprises across all sectors that give back, enrich communities and make a contribution to society, as well as the individuals and teams who lead them – the social entrepreneurs who use their business acumen to make a difference, tackling social and environmental problems in Scotland, nationally or abroad.
To give further insight into this competition category and other opportunities for social enterprises Scottish EDGE is hosting a special briefing session (details below)
Date: Thursday 20th February 2020
Time: 1.30pm – 3.30pm
Venue: Social Investment Scotland (SIS), Playfair House, 6 Broughton Street Lane, Edinburgh, EH1 3LY
Register to Attend here.