Announcing the Global Business Accelerator programme

Fully funded business support to prepare, visit and follow up international trips to exciting corners of the globe. What are you waiting for?

Written by David Golding on 16 January 2018

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Innovate UK are funding, and we're delivering, the Global Business Accelerator programme which will see cohorts of up to 15 high growth businesses explore and exploit the opportunities in specific countries and market / technology areas.

Want to apply? Read on.

Support for high growth businesses

Building collaborations and partnerships as well as understanding the needs of different markets are often the barriers stopping businesses expanding globally. This programme, therefore, will support businesses through that and follow-up activity to maximise their chances of success and achieve the greatest impact.

Three phases: get ready, visit, exploit

Getting ready for market

A ‘getting ready for market’ phase (prior to going out to the country) will ensure the businesses understand the market, how to operate in the market, understand the target sector/technology in the country, and receive help to find partners and arrange meetings in advance. This phase will include pitch training for each business so that they can easily articulate their business and value proposition.

Visiting the market

Visiting the market will usually involve visiting the target country for around a week to maximise the opportunity. A typical programme would involve:

Orientation by local experts and officials at the British Embassy/High Commission
Meeting with potential partners through a brokerage style event
Visits to businesses (including large businesses/potential collaborators/future customers), research centres, universities, etc. to better understand the market/technology area.

Exploiting the opportunity

Exploiting the opportunity is perhaps the most important part of the programme as it is all too easy when the businesses return to the UK to not have time to realise the opportunities they have identified and to follow up. As part of the Programme, each business participating will be expected to agree an action plan with an EEN adviser and then follow through on the action plan.