Tees Valley companies are to benefit from innovative pilot
programmes, including £ 2.3 million of direct grant funding,
through a scheme designed to strengthen and support local
business start-ups and scale-up.
The five schemes include:
- An intensive accelerator support programme for entrepreneurs,
delivered through six-month incubation or 12-week scale-up
programmes.
- A mentoring and coaching programme offering focused support
from subject matter experts to drive business growth.
- An innovation programme connecting SMEs to large
organisations through innovation challenges, supporting smaller
firms to develop new products and access new markets.
- A further Net Zero initiative to help firms develop the
certification required to access Tees Valley Tier 1 and 2 supply
chain opportunities.
- Targeted support is also available for entrepreneurs
encountering multiple socio-economic barriers to self-employment
and business growth funding.
A significant proportion of the funding will go directly to
businesses, with up to £2.3million grant funding available to
support those with the drive and ambition to grow.
Tees Valley Mayor said: “It’s vital that all our
amazing businesses can benefit from support to help them grow and
deliver high quality, well-paid jobs for our area.
“We’ve already got some superb small businesses which we want to
encourage to grow while also supporting entrepreneurs to set up
new companies across a range of industries and
sectors.”
Siobhan McArdle, Chair of the Tees Valley Business Board, said:
“It has been a primary focus of the Business Board to simplify
and streamline support so firms can access the timely,
high-quality and pragmatic support they need.
“We also wanted to ensure a significant proportion of the funding
available would go directly to SME businesses. This new programme
has been driven by the feedback we received from Tees Valley
businesses, and we will continue to work with the local business
community to inform future programmes.
“Following our supplier engagement event, we had 67 suppliers
apply to deliver this programme, with 19 businesses shortlisted
and asked to pitch. During this process we also saw some really
creative and innovative bids and we plan to explore these further
as we move towards the delivery of the additional business
support programmes that will make up the Tees Valley Investment
Zone programme.”
The schemes, which are still subject to contract, are funded by
the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund
(UKSPF).
The announcement comes following a raft of UKSPF-funded programme
launches, including Tees Valley Digital Transformation, Tees
Valley Net Zero, Tees Valley Securing Investment and Tees Valley
Supply Chain.
Successful bids are led by Decerna Ltd, Triage Centrum Ltd, Alt
Labs Agency Ltd, Orangebox Training Solutions UK Ltd and Edge
Innovation Ltd.
