The Entrepreneuring Awards, which are fast becoming a fixture of the UK business landscape, saw firms pick up the prizes following the six month accelerator programme and after pitching their business ideas. The awards ceremony, supported by both RBS and KPMG, was hosted in two locations across the UK in order to reach as many entrepreneurs as possible.

The awards evening featured guest speakers including Josh Littlejohn, founder of Social Bite and The Scottish Business Awards, and Gary Maitles, Entrepreneurial Spark alumni and founder of The Service Directory in Scotland. In Birmingham for Entrepreneurial Spark's first Hatchery south of the Border, was alumni James Brown of Beer 52 and Simon Topman, founder of Acme Whistles.

Gordon Merrylees, Head of Entrepreneurship at Royal Bank of Scotland, said: "It's incredibly important that we support entrepreneurs, as they are the wealth creators and the lifeblood of the UK economy. The standard of today's pitches demonstrated Scotland's enormous entrepreneurial talent.

"The Entrepreneuring Awards are a tremendous and fitting celebration of the work of Entrepreneurial Spark, the superb collaboration across the local ecosystems and the hard-working entrepreneurs within its accelerators as they achieve their growth potential and ambitions as the programme expands across the UK."

Jim Duffy, chief executive of Entrepreneurial Spark, said: "This has been a wonderful celebration of the spirit of entrepreneuring, which is a phrase we coined to denote the Go-Do attitude and desire to bring about positive change for themselves and others that characterises the brilliant businesspeople that we support. My congratulations to all the winners across our Hatcheries across the UK - I'm sure this will spur them on to even greater things."

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