Growth is often talked about as though it is simply a case of doing more of what already works.
For a business that has reached the point where it is ready to scale, the reality can be very different.
The systems, leadership structures and ways of working that helped build a successful small business may not be the ones it needs for its next stage. New markets and customers need to be found, management teams evolve and governance becomes more important. Processes that work for 20 employees can come under very different pressure with 100.
Finance matters enormously, of course. But one of the most important things we can recognise about scaling businesses is that their challenges rarely begin and end with capital.
Understanding what is holding growth back
The potential within the Welsh business community is significant.
The Wales ScaleUp Index 2025, drawing on ONS data from 2019 to 2022, identified 1,200 scaleup businesses, with another 610 in the scaling pipeline. Together, those businesses generated £19.6 billion in turnover and employed more than 121,000 people.
The barriers they identify are revealing. Research among Welsh scaleup leaders suggests that finance, markets and talent as the three biggest constraints on further growth.
That matters because each requires a different response.
One business might need capital to invest in new machinery or technology. Another may be financially ready to grow but need to strengthen its leadership team. Others might be looking for skilled people, trying to break into new markets or considering how
Looking beyond investment alone
At the Development Bank of Wales, we know the difference patient investment can make when an ambitious management team is ready to grow. But we also recognise that providing finance alone will not remove every obstacle a scaling business encounters.
Sometimes another perspective can be equally valuable.
An experienced business leader who has encountered that next phase of growth before can challenge assumptions, ask the difficult questions and share their experience of the decisions that come with scaling.
There can be value in speaking to peers, too. Running a growing company can be isolating. Having an opportunity to compare experiences with other people facing similar decisions can provide reassurance as well as practical insight.
For those of us supporting businesses, the challenge is therefore to think more broadly about what is needed around capital to help management teams fulfil their ambitions.
Testing a different approach to scale-up support
That thinking sits behind Sbardun, a new pilot being delivered by the Development Bank of Wales and Welsh Government.
Over 24 months, an initial cohort of 20 existing Development Bank customers with significant growth potential will receive coordinated support. It will combine access to active capital with experienced business leaders, leadership development, specialist expertise, networks and peer learning.
Starting with a focused group gives us an opportunity to learn.
No two growing businesses will encounter exactly the same barriers, so understanding what works is important. We want to become better at identifying the individual constraints holding ambitious Welsh businesses back and understand which forms of support can help remove them.
That was also part of the conversation when I joined business leaders and advisers at ScaleUp Britain in Cardiff. What came through strongly was not a shortage of ambition among Welsh businesses, but the importance of having finance, expertise, people and connections available when businesses are ready to translate that ambition into growth.
Creating the conditions for the next step
There is a broader prize here.
When a successful Welsh company scales, the impact can reach beyond that individual business. Growth can create skilled jobs, strengthen local supply chains, support investment in innovation, open new export markets and give people opportunities to develop their careers. When those companies remain headquartered in Wales, more of the value they create can stay here too.
That is why our conversation about entrepreneurship should not stop once a business has successfully established itself.
We absolutely need people to start new companies. But we also need to pay close attention to businesses which have already demonstrated that their model works and are deciding what comes next.
Sometimes the answer will be finance. Sometimes it will be leadership, skills, markets, networks or something much more specific to that individual company.
The better we become at recognising that difference, the better placed we will be to help ambitious Welsh businesses take their next step.
Wales already has businesses with the potential to become much bigger companies. Giving more of them the confidence, capital and capability to scale can help us build a stronger base of Welsh-owned and Welsh-headquartered businesses, creating jobs, increasing productivity and generating wealth that remains here for the long term.
