Thursday 12th November 2026, 2:21pm
The Scottish National Investment Bank has launched the Scottish Universities Fund, alongside Scotland’s higher education institutions.
The fund, which will begin investing in Spring 2027, will support the creation and growth of innovative businesses emerging from Scotland's universities and aims to address a capital shortage through mobilising additional private investment.
The Bank will provide up to £65 million of cornerstone capital over the next five years, and establish the investment platform as a central point to engage investors, founders and partners.
The fund will strengthen the journey from research and innovation to commercial success, helping university-linked businesses grow from early-stage development to scale-up. It is designed to work alongside our existing investor network, including Scottish Enterprise, and support the wider innovation ecosystem.
Scotland's universities are internationally recognised for their research excellence and innovation, delivering 12% of UK research output against 8% of the population. However, many promising businesses continue to face challenges scaling in Scotland.
The Scottish Universities Fund has been established to help address this challenge and unlock greater economic value from Scotland's academic and research strengths. The Fund is sector agnostic but will focus on areas aligned with Scotland’s research strengths, including:
Two complementary investment strategies make up the Fund’s offer.
The Ignition Strategy will fund pre-seed to seed businesses with early-stage capital in the £250,000 to £1.5m range, with £15m is of the Bank’s cornerstone investment allocated for these investments.
The Accelerator Strategy will contribute to Series A+ rounds, enabling companies to scale and will fund rounds in the region of £2m to £8m, with £50m earmarked for these round.
An event held on 11th November celebrated the fund’s launch, at the Bank’s Edinburgh office, and brought together Scotland's university principals and senior leaders, with government and the wider innovation ecosystem around a shared ambition to increase the number and quality of high-growth companies emerging from Scotland's universities and help them scale from Scotland.
This is an extract of the article published 10th November 2026 by The Scottish National Investment Bank.
Roslin Innovation Centre
The University of Edinburgh
Easter Bush Campus
Midlothian EH25 9RG
