Techscaler Programme 2022-2024: early evaluation - main report

Glossary

Different business stages are referred to within this evaluation report and this differs by source.

For the period (2022-2024) covered by this early evaluation of the Techscaler Programme, CodeBase defined four business stages as follows:

• ideation — an individual with an idea but no clear focus or commitment to building a company.
• early-stage — an individual focused on a specific market or problem space. The person may/may not have a registered business, prototype, or Minimum Viable Product (MVP) but are dedicating time to advancing their idea.
• growth — a company with a live product looking to acquire customers and may/may not have existing customers.
• scaling — a company with a live product, revenue, and a team including department heads/specialists (for example, product team, engineering team, growth team).

CodeBase has evolved its segmentation definitions based on user feedback, and the new definitions are being used for 2025 delivery and company categorisation. While the new definitions are not relevant for the timeline of this early evaluation we have presented them in the main body of report for information purposes. We refer to different business stages in our Conclusions and Recommendations Chapters and the new segmentation definitions provide relevant context.

To further support the reader, we have provided further clarity on other key definitions used within this evaluation report.

The Scottish Innovation Strategy (2023-2033) defines a startup as follows:

Startup — refers to a completely new business that wants to bring new ideas to a market and create innovative products and services. There is no defined timescale for what businesses are considered startup, but we have assumed they are under five years old.

The Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) defines a scaleup as follows:

Scaleup — businesses that have moved beyond startup and demonstrated rapid, sustained growth in revenue or employees, typically growing at least 20% annually over three years. That is, a company that maintains at least 20% annual growth in either employee headcount or revenue for three consecutive years — starting with at least 10 employees.

The SNIB definition is in line with that established by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to provide a clear benchmark for identifying companies in their growth phase.

It should be noted that the definition CodeBase uses for scaling (see PDF page 24 of this report) is not the same as the SNIB or OECD definition.