Entrepreneurial Spark Powered by NatWest, part of the embattled RBS Banking group, has published its Impact Report 2017 today. The report focuses on the success of the Entrepreneurial Spark scheme for start-up and scale-up businesses. Among the successes the report lists are £151 million in investment raised and that 85% of businesses are still trading. This latter figure compares with 40% nationally although the source of the 40% figure is not given.

In a statement Lucy-Rose Walker, Entrepreneurial Spark CEO said: “We’ve given this Impact Report the title ‘Blow Your Mind’ and it’s not hard to see why. The stats are truly mind blowing and we’ve enabled our entrepreneurs to create real jobs, huge turnover and significant investment via our focus on developing their entrepreneurial mindsets and behaviours. Our entrepreneurs have turned over £176m, so it is clear what an impact we are having on the UK economy.

“Our vision is to create positive social change by giving people the chance to grow and create jobs, and value in the economy. It’s really gratifying to see that those entrepreneurs have now created 3,152 jobs across the UK, all of them creating social change by contributing to their communities and local economies.”