CBS plan generates £1.2m for start-ups

Pilot scheme helps hi-tech firms gain global footing

A scottish Enterprise pilot scheme generated almost £1.2million in sales for new technology companies in its first year - six times the original investment.

The Commercialisation Breakthrough Service (CBS), launched in March 2008, helped 10 start-up companies generate new sales in the global markets.

CBS was launched with a pot of £200,000 to fund expert advice from the private sector to help fledgling technology businesses. It offered up to 50 per cent of the overall investment which was then matched by the participating company. Expertise is drawn from a number of commercial business management firms, each of which was chosen for its specific expertise in pushing new technological products to global markets.

Following the success of the pilot, CBS is now actively looking for further technology companies to participate in the next phase.

"Scottish Enterprise recognised many Scottish hi-tech firms face significant challenges in selling their products in the international marketplace."

"During the early stages of growth we have noticed a real market failure out there - which is by no means unique to Scotland - on how you move a company away from too much product focus and onto building their market focus. We recognised this failure and I was asked to head up a team to provide a dedicated support service for hi-tech, product-led firms."

"The idea was to work up a public and private working partnership model to ensure a representative sample of companies, but not too many we would lose sight of the project's objectives. So we decided to run the pilot with ten companies over a period of 12 months, with the option to extend the programme over another year if it proved to be successful."

"The first 12 months have shown a remarkable success, and the 10 companies we have assisted attribute £1.14m of additional sales directly linked to the project."

Although 14 companies were initially chosen for the pilot project, four were forced to drop out due to product commercialisation delays or problems in matching Scottish Enterprise funding.

Murray added:

"Our overall funding for the pilot was £200,000 to be split among 10 companies and delivered in £5k increments, depending on performance."

"Scottish Enterprise has brought hi-tech companies together with private sector experts by matching the companies with individuals who have successfully taken technology products to market.The 10 companies were asked to leverage the Scottish Enterprise's commitment as a contribution in kind for a proper market launch programme, as the fund matching proved to us they were 100 per cent behind the launch of their product."

"From last year's companies, the real star was a games company called Outer Light, which managed to secure a £350,000 contract for its interactive computer game, The Ship."

"Cooper Software was also very successful in moving from a service-based organisation to product sales, and the company has since secured sales to tier-one companies in the global markets."

For information on how to apply for the CBS scheme, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .