ENTREPRENEURIAL Spark is in talks to open another business hatchery in Scotland and is also mulling a possible roll-out south of the Border of the formula it has developed to encourage start-ups.
Co-founder Jim Duffy said he was in discussions with a Scottish council that was considering providing funding for a centre he hopes to open this year.
Mr Duffy declined to provide details but noted: "I would love to open one in Aberdeen. I would love to open one in Inverness."
The former policeman said he had also had talks with a high-level entrepreneur who might back the new centre.
Entrepreneurial Spark has developed hatcheries in Glasgow, Ayrshire and Edinburgh, with support from entrepreneurs including Sir Willie Haughey, Sir Tom Hunter and Ann Gloag.
The founders hope to encourage hopefuls by providing a free programme of mentoring with office accommodation and communications technology supplied.
Entrepreneurial Spark recently selected 37 people with ideas for potential businesses to be the first "chiclets" at the recently opened facility in Edinburgh.
A year after the first centre opened in Glasgow, Mr Duffy said the programme had succeeded on several fronts.
"We have created more jobs than we thought. We have brought in seven-figure investments [in chiclets]. We have got a new swathe of start-ups working with each other and networking."
Mr Duffy said 157 people had joined the programme to date. Some 57 had completed it. Around 80% of those who completed the programme are still training. Five or six have achieved six-figure sales.
Twelve found their plans were not viable or decided the programme was not for them.
The programme is delivered in association with Glasgow Caledonian and Napier universities and supported by commercial heavyweights including Royal Bank of Scotland.
Entrepreneurial Spark announced PwC had agreed a significant sponsorship programme. The accountancy giant will provide a five-figure funding package and workshops in business planning.
Lindsay Gardiner, head of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Scotland, said entrepreneurial businesses were an important cog in Scotland's economic engine. He added: "I am delighted PwC is joining forces with ESpark to help nurture and develop the next generation of entrepreneurs here."
Mr Duffy has been approached by several local authorities in England and Wales that want to learn more about the Entrepreneurial Spark model.
The organisation may roll the programme out through franchising or by admitting chiclets from south of the Border.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article