King's College London

The UK ScaleUP Investment Mission Roundtable brought together founders, funders, industry trade bodies and policy organisations to address barriers and opportunities to accessing funding for ‘scale’, amongst ventures across diverse industries.

The event was hosted in collaboration with King's College London, British Business Bank and Beauhurst, bringing together key players such as The Entrepreneurs Network, Innovate UK, UK Business Angels Association, VenturePath, The Fund Incubator Limited, Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA), British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA), techUK, Startup Coalition and the Department for Business and Trade. 

King's Business School academics Professor Ute Stephan (Professor of Entrepreneurship), Dr Robyn Klingler-Vidra (Reader in Entrepreneurship and Sustainability) and Professor Rebecca Riley (Professor of Practice in Economics), were also present, alongside the Entrepreneurship Institute's Head of Ventures & Acceleration, Holly Knower. 

The conversation touched on several key themes:

• Data - The need to open up public sector data to identify scaling businesses across the country, ensuring companies are supported at all stages of their journey.
• Referrals - A requirement for greater collaboration across the private and public sector to join up the investment support offering, and improve visibility of scaling companies by life stage, to help VCs find and fund the best high-growth scaling businesses. 
• Support - The provision of greater investor readiness support and guidance for high-growth founders; irrespective of location/background.
• Celebrate - The need to celebrate successes, creating a narrative that the UK is the best place to build and grow a business, from startup through to exit.