Scottish EDGE launches Social Enterprise EDGE Award
Scottish EDGE, Scotland’s leading competition to identify and support the nation’s most promising entrepreneurial talent, is launching a special category award today – the Social Enterprise EDGE (SEE) Award – in partnership with Postcode Innovation Trust to encourage applications from Social Enterprise businesses.
The (SEE) Award will be a prize of up to £100,000 – 60% loan and 40% grant – for the top Social Enterprise business idea in rounds 13 and 14 of the Scottish EDGE competition.
Scottish EDGE has made 300+ awards to date, totalling over £11 million while helping to create over 1000 jobs and boosting turnover of awardee companies by £104.22 million while helping them to secure an additional £84.47 million in investment.
Postcode Innovation Trust is funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery and has recently been established to support the development of the social enterprise sector in Great Britain.
The introduction of the SEE Award aims to emulate the success of the tech focused special award, Higgs EDGE, and the creative focused special award, Creative EDGE, both of which have resulted in their respective sectors holding the highest representation at Scottish EDGE’s application stage, round on round.
Alumni social enterprise success stories include: Brewgooder, a brewery which donates 100% of its profits to supplying clean water to deprived areas; Orbit Education, who provide enterprise programmes to schools around the UK; and supplier of refurbished IT equipment and training to schools in sub-Saharan Africa, Turing Trust.
Scottish EDGE launches Round 13 on Tues 24th July with the final planned for 6th December where up to £1 million in grant and loan funding will be awarded to around twenty-five Scottish startups.
Scottish EDGE itself is supported by the Royal Bank of Scotland, The Hunter Foundation and the Scottish Government.
Evelyn McDonald, CEO of Scottish EDGE said:
“There is a misconception that Scottish EDGE, with its strong focus on business growth, is not supportive of businesses whose profits are 100% reinvested back into their social and/or environmental purpose. In reality, we believe that the need for social entrepreneurs and their solutions to tackling global inequalities is greater now than ever." “The generous support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery will allow Scottish EDGE, through the Social Enterprise EDGE Award, to raise the profile of the innovative businesses working to overcome those barriers, and to truly take Scottish social entrepreneurship mainstream.”
Joe Ray, Social Investment Advisor at Postcode Innovation Trust said:
“We’re very pleased to be supporting the first Social Enterprise EDGE award. Scotland is already a leading centre for social enterprise and this award should help inspire the next generation of social entrepreneurs who are working to address society’s problems.”
Alastair Davis, CEO of Social Investment Scotland said:
“We’re delighted to see the launch of the Social Enterprise EDGE. For entrepreneurs, social enterprise is increasingly being seen as a business model of choice and Scotland is increasingly being recognised as one of the best places in the world to start, grow and scale a social enterprise. This award highlights the growing inclusiveness of our economy and I look forward to being inspired by the next generation of businesses combining profit and purpose."
Alan Mahon, Founder of Brewgooder said:
“As a winner of a Scottish EDGE Award in Round 9 I know first hand the difference that this support can provide for early stage and growth entrepreneurs, especially those running social enterprises for whom traditional growth funding may not be an option. By helping to scale social enterprises this award can only be a good thing for developing even more purpose-driven companies in Scotland.”