Royal Bank of Scotland and University of Edinburgh have announced a new alliance to boost the country’s “boldest startups.”
As part of the brand’s commitment to support 5,000 Scottish start-ups this year, a dedicated member of staff will work with the university’s AI Accelerator programme team to provide strategic coordination between entrepreneurs, academic innovation teams, and the Royal Bank Accelerator community.
“Scotland is full of talent and bold ideas and through our new alliance with the University of Edinburgh, we’re focused on helping founders turn them into real businesses. This partnership strengthens Accelerator support where innovation is already thriving within the university environment,” said Heidi Simpson, Regional Accelerator Director, Royal Bank of Scotland.
“Building on a foundation of years of collaboration, we’re supercharging our partnership to support the innovators of the future. We’re putting a complete support system in one place, with hands-on coaching, expert insight and a community that founders and students can tap into. This is about making it easier for start-ups and scaling businesses across Scotland to move faster, think bigger and turn ambition into growth that in turn benefits the Scottish economy.”
They will be providing practical, in-person advice as well as large-scale sessions and boutique events to help businesses scale.
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RBS has also revealed that it will provide £30,000 to the University of Edinburgh’s AI Accelerator, enabling participants to boost their offering by accessing support from academics, PhDs or other resources from across the University.
The AI Accelerator programme has supported over 100 companies so far to collectively raise over £120 million in funding and is currently recruiting for its 10th cohort.
It’s the latest RBS Accelerator hub to be launched at a university, following Oxford, Manchester, York, Brighton and Warwick.
“This new alignment of entrepreneurship expertise and resources between the Royal Bank of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh is great news for the entrepreneurs across our cohorts,” added Douglas Graham, Director of Innovation Clusters at Edinburgh Innovations, the University’s commercialisation service.
“Offering our combined support to talented founders and their emerging ideas and technologies strengthens our regional and national innovation ecosystem, and helps harness data, digital and AI for the good of all.”
