Entrepreneurial Spark

Entrepreneurial Spark was a Glasgow-founded free business accelerator set up by Jim Duffy, incorporated as Entrepreneurial-Spark Limited on 12 January 2012. From 2014 it ran as 'Entrepreneurial Spark powered by NatWest', opening hatcheries in bank offices across Scotland, England and Wales and describing itself as the world's largest free business accelerator; the partnership's 2018 impact report cited nearly 4,000 entrepreneurs supported, £255m raised and 8,096 jobs created. In February 2018 NatWest took the accelerator in-house, where it continues as the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator. The original company was renamed E-Spark (Scotland) Limited and then 21st Century Brain Limited, assigned its intellectual property to a connected company in June 2018, applied for voluntary strike-off in December 2020 and was dissolved on 16 March 2021. The successor E-Spark (Scotland) Limited entered members' voluntary liquidation in July 2021 and was dissolved in May 2024.

The accelerator programme, hubs and brand were absorbed by NatWest in 2018; the residual Entrepreneurial Spark companies were closed solvently (strike-off in 2021, members' voluntary liquidation completed 2024, creditors paid in full).