Scottish spinout fund opens for business

The Scottish National Investment Bank has released details of its long-anticipated Scottish Universities Fund for spinouts, worth up to £65m.

At this stage the bank says that it is “interested in hearing from businesses who may be eligible to receive capital funding,” with a full rollout planned for 2027.

The fund is made up of two main strands, as well as a business support programme formed of a “network of experts”. The first part of the fund, dubbed the Ignition Strategy, is for pre-seed to seed funding, and envisages making investments of between £250,000 and £1.5m in university-linked businesses. It is described as sector-agnostic, but expects to see “particular activity” in health and life sciences, energy transition, data and digital, and advanced manufacturing.

Complementing this is the Accelerator Strategy part of the fund, for “innovative businesses that have successfully moved beyond their earliest stages” – typical investment here will be from £2m to £8m, and is designed specifically to support university-linked businesses in Scotland’s major innovation sectors.

The launch of a university spinout fund formed part of the Scottish National Party’s 2026–27 programme for government, having previously been referenced as far back as the 2023 Scottish innovation strategy.

The Scottish Spinout Report, published earlier this year, said that the proposed fund would “allow businesses to move from their early beginnings and pre-seed funding through to the growth capital required to allow high-potential businesses to scale.” It added that the bank would work with groups including Universities Scotland and the Research and Commercialisation Directors Group, and that it would use its “deep market connections” to crowd further investment into the sector.

Separately, the Scottish government has continued its proof-of-concept funding initiative for university projects, allocating just under £3m to a second round of awardees earlier this autumn.