Investment Support

Glasgow strengthens its welcome with a powerful range of incentives and grants designed to secure and accelerate your investment in the city, including:

Soft-Landing Space Incentive

Invest Glasgow’s Soft‑Landing Space Incentive gives new investors a compelling financial boost during their first year in the city. The programme offers meaningful support with business premises costs, enabling companies to establish themselves with confidence. Eligible investors can receive 50% of their rental costs for 12 months, with grant funding available up to £10,000 - providing a strong, practical foundation for a successful launch in Glasgow.

GCC Business Growth Support

Our advanced business support service empowers both new and established companies to thrive in the city. Whether you’re launching a venture, scaling up, recruiting talent, strengthening your green credentials, or embracing digital innovation, we provide comprehensive, expert guidance every step of the way. You’ll be partnered with a dedicated business advisor who offers tailored advice, ongoing aftercare, and ensures you can access the full range of support available to meet your ambitions and drive sustainable growth.

Learn more about GCC Business Growth Support.

Scottish Enterprise Capital Investment Grant

This grant is available to businesses already present in Scotland or looking to move to Scotland and you may be eligible if your project involves spending on capital assets such as buildings, machinery or equipment. 

Further information on the Scottish Enterprise Capital Investment Grant.

Scottish Enterprise R&D Grant

If your company is looking to research and develop a new product, process or service – or significantly improve an existing one – Scottish Enterprise R&D grants can offer a range of support for your project.

For more information on R&D Grants.

SMART: SCOTLAND Grants

If you are you a small or medium-sized business seeking to develop a new product, process or service then Scottish Enterprise’s SMART: SCOTLAND grant can support technically focused feasibility studies to help discover if your idea will work in the real world.

Learn more about SMART: Scotland.

Scottish Enterprise Entrepreneurship & Investment Teams

The Scottish Enterprise Entrepreneurship and Investment teams invests in and supports early-stage companies and the investment market, including inward investment opportunities.  The team can offer support and advice and can help you access a range of funding, including bank funding, equity funding, loan funding, and grants.

Read more about the Scottish Enterprise Entrepreneurship and Investment teams.

Dealroom: The Glasgow Tech Ecosystem Platform

Glasgow's Dealroom is an open-access database to better connect start-ups with investors and corporates, providing real-time insights on the health of the regional innovation economy and showcasing Glasgow City Region’s wider tech ecosystem to the world.

The single platform is specifically designed to support scaling tech communities, with reliable intelligence, overarching trends and headline figures as well as detailed data on start-ups, scale-ups, and corporates across the city region. The data covers 740+ technology-based start-ups as well as investors and accelerators, universities, co-working spaces, tech meetups and much more.

Market Intelligence

Our Glasgow City Region Intelligence Hub provides a range of economic intelligence services. This includes data analysis, policy research, economic modelling, strategy development and project evaluation for the City Region. This work covers a broad range of economic issues – including demographics, land use, sustainability, inward investment, economic growth, tourism, transport, enterprise, skills, employment and housing.

Work delivered by the Hub provides a robust evidence base for future policy and investment decisions across the Region.  From this we will ensure that you have the right market intelligence to make a confident and informed business decision.

Investment propositions

We develop tailored ‘Why Glasgow’ propositions and sector‑specific investment cases that clearly articulate the city’s strengths and strategic advantages. Each proposition is built around the factors that matter most to your cost‑benefit analysis and due‑diligence process. By co‑creating these with you, we ensure you have precise, decision‑ready insight at your fingertips to support a confident and successful relocation or investment.

Location and property advice

We support your location and property strategy by conducting targeted land and property searches through our CoStar real‑estate intelligence platform. Our team can coordinate tailored property tours and connect you directly with Glasgow’s leading agents to ensure you secure the right space for your business.

For deeper insight into Glasgow’s real estate landscape, we provide comprehensive market reports across key asset classes — office, industrial, hospitality and retail — giving you the intelligence needed to assess opportunities with clarity and confidence.

Recruitment and Talent Advice/Support

Finding and keeping the right people is one of the biggest hurdles for any growing business. Glasgow Futures Employment Recruitment Incentive is a proven, high‑impact employment programme that helps local companies recruit with confidence while supporting Glasgow residents into sustainable, rewarding work. With a strong track record and trusted reputation, it gives employers a reliable route to building the workforce they need to thrive.

Visit Glasgow Futures for more information.

Our partnership with Skills Development Scotland ensures Glasgow offers a highly responsive skills system aligned to your business needs.

In addition, a network of local recruitment specialists can provide expert insight into talent availability and salary expectations, giving you a clear understanding of the city’s workforce landscape.

Visits and Familiarisation Trips

When you’re ready to explore Glasgow up close, we can arrange and accompany you on a tailored familiarisation visit. Your itinerary can include curated meetings with key partners, sector leaders, and established companies, alongside a coordinated programme of property tours to help you assess potential sites and identify the best opportunities for your business.

You can also explore Glasgow’s potential from anywhere in the world through our innovative site‑selection tool and data portal, giving you instant access to the city’s opportunities and advantages visit Explore Glasgow.

Unrivalled access to world‑class research and development infrastructure

This access enables your business to innovate faster, collaborate with leading experts, and bring cutting‑edge ideas to market.

The Glasgow City Region Innovation Action Plan

The Action Plan sets out a route map to accelerate the innovation economy and, working in partnership with Innovate UK, Scottish Enterprise and all partners, unleash the creativity and economic potential across our region.

Read the Glasgow City Region Innovation Action Plan.

Glasgow City Region’s Innovation Districts

The Innovation District model is known worldwide as an effective way of developing new ideas, technologies, and business practices. Bursting with energy, passion, and creativity, Glasgow City Region is perfectly placed to benefit from this blueprint.

Glasgow is home to 3 Innovation Districts:

• Glasgow City Innovation District (GCID)
• Glasgow Riverside Innovation District (GRID)
• Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District for Scotland (AMIDS) - located near Glasgow Airport

Greater funding and investment are attracted to the Region by our strong innovation offer.

Innovation Accelerator (IA) Programme

In 2022-23 the UK Department of Science, Innovation & Technology launched the £100m IA programme as a boost across 3 city regions to grow jobs, skills, and the economy. Glasgow City Region was selected as an Innovation Accelerator pilot, sharing an investment of £100m over three years. This recognises the strength of the Region’s assets, the maturity of its offer and the reputation that the City Region holds as a world-leader.

Read more on the Glasgow City Region website.

Investment Zone

The Glasgow City Region Investment Zone (GCR IZ) will turbo-charge the Region’ s innovation economy in sectors where we already have strengths and which we recognise as key growth sectors of opportunity. Following a joint selection process by the UK and Scottish Governments, the GCR IZ is expected to generate around £300 million of initial private sector investment, to support 7,000 – 10,000 jobs, including through the expected Tax Site (located within AMIDS / Glasgow Airport) and to boost key growth sector specialisms of the Region’s innovation economy – specifically the Space, Semiconductor and Maritime sub-sectors of the Advanced Manufacturing sector.

Learn more about the Investment Zone.

Hear directly from the businesses already thriving in Glasgow

We can arrange targeted introductions to local business leaders, industry experts, and potential partners to support market entry, strengthen supply chain connections, and encourage collaboration. These introductions provide valuable insight into local market dynamics and help establish a strong support network.

Glasgow’s Green Deal

With a Net Zero target of 2030, Glasgow is reshaping its economy through ambitious climate action and sustainable investment that enhances the city for residents and businesses alike. 

Read the Green Deal.

Access to ecosystems, partners and networks

We work in close partnership with the wider Team Glasgow network including Scottish Development International, Scottish Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland, Glasgow’s Innovation Districts, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, and the city’s universities and colleges. Their collective expertise strengthens the Glasgow offer, providing investors and businesses with strategic guidance, access to grant funding, specialist trade and investment support, and comprehensive skills and recruitment solutions. Together, we deliver a seamless, high‑value ecosystem designed to accelerate growth and maximise opportunity.

We connect you with the most relevant sector specialists in your field, ensuring you receive deep, expert insight at every stage of your business journey.