Bristol’s fast-growth businesses can find all the information they need to help them expand in one place following the launch of the city’s first scale-up generator website.
The site, which has been created by Bristol’s Engine Shed innovation centre in partnership with the West of England Growth Hub, includes The Scale Up Yearbook, maps of scale-up support and scale-up companies and insights into the challenges of growing a business at pace in the region. 
The resource has been created by the scale-up enabler Briony Phillips with an aim to:
- Invigorate the investment ecosystem in the region and improve access to finance
- Inspire founders and aspiring scale-ups
- Build the profile of the region as a home for successful scale up companies.
To achieve these, Engine Shed runs an in-house investor-in-residence service, the Quarterly Investment Briefing with support from accountants Smith & Williamson and KPMG and law firm TLT, and the UKBAA Angel Hub.
A series of scale-up briefing events and a growing bank of case studies will offer inspiration for start-ups and scale ups, and peer-to-peer networks, shared resources, and data and maps to expose the great work that happens locally will be available to support businesses.
Engine Shed also aims to gather and share intelligence to minimise duplication and maximise collaboration in the region to make support more accessible.
The majority of Briony’s research will be accessible on the Scale Up Generator website, which has been built in partnership with Bath-based Rocketmakers, including hot-off-the-press insights into finding office space, securing investment, useful networking information, and the scale up support map. In addition, TechSPARK has been commissioned to create case studies on existing scale- up success stories including Ultrahaptics, the Bristol firm behind cutting-edge technology that allows people to ‘feel’ virtual objects, Bristol-based customer advocacy marketing firm Duel, and Bath-based content marketing agency Dialetc.
Briony, pictured, has written the Scale Up Yearbook as the culmination of her role as West of England scale up enabler, after dedicating the last 12-months to making the West of England an even better place for businesses to grow. The yearbook highlights the need for a uniting brand that will put Bristol and Bath on the map as a world-leader in sustainable economic growth.
The 16-page report highlights the success of fast-growth companies in the Bristol city-region since receiving scale up support over the past 12 months and recognises the work that still needs to be done to invigorate the local investment ecosystem.
This initial experiment was supported by our partners Business West, the West of England Growth Hub and the University of Bristol.
Briony, who has recently been appointed scale up enabler and associate director of Engine Shed, will continue her work championing and enabling scaling companies in the region with a focus on access to investment and leadership capacity, reflecting Engine Shed’s ongoing commitment to local economic growth.
She said: “The West of England is a national leader and innovator in this kind of work. The Scale Up Yearbook will be shared with colleagues across the world working towards scale up support, and we hope it will act as a framework for other regions as they move towards similar economic goals.
“The Scale up Generator website demonstrates how rich both the scale up support community, and the scale up communities are in the wider Bristol and Bath region. Now, our collective challenge is to maximise the positive impact for all our citizens.”
West of England Metro Mayor Tim Bowles added: “The new Scale up Generator website supported through the West of England Combined Authority and Local Enterprise Partnership will be a great add-on to our Growth Hub site, offering fast growth businesses more information on where to go for support and finance. We are an economically successful region where businesses start, grow and thrive in high numbers. As Mayor, it is one of my priorities is to ensure they get the continuing help and support they need to grow and prosper.”
