Accelerating Business Growth

Driving economic growth and social outcomes across the UK through targeted growth acceleration programmes.

Are you an SME looking to tackle big challenges and unlock new opportunities?

Get in touch to find out about support options

Are you a council or local authority looking for a new, proven way to cultivate entrepreneurial growth in your region?

Get in touch to find out about how we can help.

Innovator Accelerator Programmes

We work with councils, local authorities, anchor institutions and industry clusters to drive positive business outcomes by harnessing Productive Innovation as an engine for growth.

Our long-format programmes take a unique approach to supporting SMEs to achieve growth outcomes, supporting them through tailored, achievable and value-lead activities to make real progress on new business ideas, services & products, and adoption of new technologies and processes.

Our Work

We collaborated with five London borough councils, alongside higher education institutions and other local anchor partners to activate and onboard a cohort of SMEs for acceleration.

Find out a bit more about some of the SMEs we worked with below!

LN + B

Throughout the process of the accelerator we connected this tech-beauty platform with IN2, an innovative communications and research company, and they were able to take on 3 interns to drive the startup forward. Stay tuned for their rebrand and launch.

Single Swan

We supported Single Swan with customer discovery to help with the design of new products for a target market. We set them up with free mentoring support from a Senior Marketing Specialist who went on to assist them with their website and other marketing strategies.

2Toucans

Reach out and learn more from different SMEs we have helped in accelerating their productive innovation efforts.

IMPACT

This programme sets out to engage new and existing businesses, anchor institutions, local hubs, talent and communities to develop opportunities that drive productive innovation in the region.

Testimonials

  • “For businesses that need help with diversifying, this programme is really good in giving you the tools and time to think about new ideas separate from your normal working environment. Being taught how to work through idea generation in a really logical, simple way just makes the process much easier.” Katrina Dickinson Managing Director at Metaphor

    Katrina Dickinson

    Managing Director at Metaphor

  • “What I really valued about the programme was the structured process that Studio Zao took us all through to crystallise the problem that we were trying to solve, for whom we were solving it, why it was important, and the value of solving that particular problem for our key stakeholders.”

    Graham Kennedy

    Founder/Director at Alexoria Consulting

  • “There has been a strong degree of understanding, empathy and flexibility in how Studio Zao have pivoted with the circumstances that we’re facing on the programme, and that’s why we’re keen to keep working with them beyond the end of the contract.”

    Paul Kirkbright

    Head of Partnerships at Business Innovation & Growth South London (Sponsor / Client)

  • “We came into the programme with an idea that we felt was already ready to go to market. But we took a step back and by taking it through this very structured and rigorous process, we found that we’ve refined it and actually transformed it into a much stronger, simpler and more credible idea.”

    Jill Finch

    Director at Branch & Bird and Autistic Community Hub CIC