Delivering innovation-led growth programmes to drive meaningful impact in regional ecosystems, business and academic sectors, and industry fields.
Accelerate Growth
Businesses, entrepreneurs and community organisations are the lifeblood of local socio-economic prosperity.
Strong businesses create strong communities. When start-ups and spin-outs are launched, and SMEs (small-to-medium-sized businesses) grow, they generate profit, create jobs, attract investment, and strengthen local economies.
The challenge facing businesses, academic institutions, local government, industry bodies, commercial landlords and other public funders are:
How do we engage these individuals and organisations?
How do we activate a growth capability and mindset?
How do we help them thrive, innovate, and take new ideas to new markets?
How do we crowd-in funding and investment to grow key sectors and generate place-based clustering and prosperity?
Traditional business support programmes can only go so far. Marketing, finance and accounting how-to is vital, but not growth-oriented. We believe that to truly grow, smaller businesses, entrepreneurs and academics require intensive, structured and practical support to incubate new services and products, test ideas, adopt new skills and mindsets, and access funding for launch and growth.
We partner with local authorities, universities, government funders, and business ecosystems to deliver innovation-led economic growth.
We help start-ups, scale-ups and mid-sized businesses at critical growth stages diversify their product and service offerings - unlocking new revenue streams while delivering tangible value to customers and communities. Every new product or service isn’t just a market opportunity; it’s a catalyst for employment, innovation, and long-term economic resilience.
Our approach combines data-driven strategy, real-world testing, and capability building to ensure growth is sustainable and scalable.
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IMPACT Growth Programmes
Long-format, localised programmes that help businesses to create new products, services, and models that address regional challenges.
Accelerator Cohorts and Labs - Incubating growth ideas within businesses to make next steps happen, develop and deliver new products and services, improve productivity and processes, implement new technologies, and access funding and investment.
Testing and Launching - Delivering 1-2-1 and sector-specific Growth Lab sessions, diving into practical contexts, planning and delivering customer-facing experiments, and building capacity and skills in the business community.
Investment Readiness - Preparing SMEs for identifying and securing investment, at all stages, to make growth happen.
Community Capability - Engaging with ecosystems and networks to tackle relevant challenges and opportunities, breaking down barriers to growth and innovation and delivering on local priorities.
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Venture Acceleration
Incubating commercial ventures across sectors, industries and geographies.
Product-Market Fit - Supporting entrepreneurs and startups to develop solutions to sector challenges and develop and test commercial services and models, for real.
Market Validation - Closely partnering with high-growth ventures to validate products and services in the market, build evidence and a business case to secure investment and funding.
03
Academic Entrepreneurship
Enabling academics and students to apply and commercialise knowledge, expertise and research.
Knowledge Exchange and Transfer - Supporting academic staff and researchers to commercialise knowledge, partner with industry and businesses, launch and spin-out services and products, and develop entrepreneurial mindsets.
Technology and Research Translation - Engaging research bodies and funders, together with industry, to develop commercial use cases for cutting-edge technology and development, seeding spin-outs and securing investment.
Our impact in numbers
300+
Businesses supported across Torbay and five South London boroughs
£150,000
Grant funding administered to support small business growth
60+
Jobs created and safeguarded
30+
New products and services launched
15+
Businesses entered new markets
Growth Outcomes
We supported Torbay-based plastic injection moulding specialist, Hymid, in developing and launching its first own-brand product - a robust custom plastic hard case - securing £65,000 in international sales, grant funding, and driving a projected £330,000 annual revenue increase.
We guided grassroots community group Queer Croydon to diversify beyond its successful arts events by launching a new programme of arts-based wellness and mental-health support - securing £10,000 in grant funding to reach Croydon’s 9,520 LGBTQI+ residents and provide dedicated safe-space sessions for trans youth.
We helped Torbay Distilling Company validate market demand for a new product, resulting in the successful launch of Torbay Rum. The expansion increased revenue, attracted a new customer audience, and accelerated growth - prompting the move to a larger facility to scale production and meet rising demand.
Our client work
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“There has been a strong degree of understanding, empathy and flexibility in how Studio Zao have pivoted with the circumstances that we’re facing on the programme, and that’s why we’re keen to keep working with them beyond the end of the contract.”
Paul Kirkbright
Head of Partnerships at Business Innovation and Growth (BIG) South London
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“Studio Zao have been pragmatic and efficient in their undertaking of the Torbay UKSPF programme. The team have forged great relationships with the businesses and stakehoulders and have remained resilient throughout. I have been impressed with the headway they have made in Torbay, despite no prior experience in the vicinity. I have personally really enjoyed working closely with Chris, Flora and other members of the team and the IMPACT programme has added value to our business community.”
Gemma Fitzsimmons
Economic Development Manager and UKSPF Lead, Torbay Council