NatWest has announced plans to expand its Accelerator community to 50,000 members across the UK by 2026, significantly scaling its support for entrepreneurs and early-stage businesses. The target represents a five-fold increase on the bank’s ambition for 2025 and follows a year of rapid growth for the programme.
In 2025, NatWest supported around 12,000 members through the Accelerator community, exceeding its stated goal of 10,000. The bank said this single-year figure surpassed the total number of entrepreneurs it had supported through similar initiatives over the previous ten years combined, reflecting what it described as a step-change in scale and impact.
The expansion forms part of NatWest’s new five-point Growing Together plan, which sets out how the bank intends to support economic growth across the UK. The strategy focuses on strengthening regional economies, backing mid-market companies, improving infrastructure and housing foundations, boosting financial confidence among households and young people, and supporting innovation-led businesses shaping the future economy.
NatWest said the Accelerator community is designed around peer networks, local cohorts, and access to mentors, investors, and specialist expertise. The model aims to help early-stage and high-growth businesses launch, scale, and build resilience, particularly in capital- and research-intensive sectors viewed as critical to the UK’s long-term competitiveness.
The bank released performance data suggesting that businesses completing its Accelerator programme achieved average year-on-year turnover growth of 104%, compared with 20% among a control group. It also reported that nine in ten Accelerator participants were still trading three years after completion, compared with four in ten businesses in the control group.
Robert Begbie, CEO of Commercial & Institutional Banking at NatWest, said: “We know that to build the economy of the future we need to back the innovators who will power it. Entrepreneurs are the driving force behind innovation, job creation and long-term economic growth across the UK. By raising our ambition for 2026, and building on the momentum we achieved in 2025, we’re reinforcing our commitment to back founders at every stage — from idea to scaleup — and help them turn ambition into sustainable success.”
The expansion will include opening new Accelerator hubs and extending on-campus partnerships with universities. NatWest currently partners with the Universities of Manchester, Oxford, York, Brighton, and Warwick, and plans to establish hubs at up to ten universities over the next three years. The initiative builds on a strategy launched in spring 2025 to link academic expertise with regional entrepreneurial ecosystems.
The Accelerator programme operates through 12 UK hubs and an online platform via the NatWest Accelerator app. It also works with Google to provide access to digital tools, training, and specialist support. Additional activity includes pitch events and forums held across the UK, giving founders opportunities to showcase ideas, build networks, and access funding.
The announcement was welcomed by government and business groups. Blair McDougall, Minister for Small Business, said: “This commitment from NatWest is the exact kind of action we need to unlock the huge potential of small businesses up and down the country. The UK is home to some of the brightest and most ambitious entrepreneurs and through our plan for small business and modern Industrial Strategy we are backing them with increased access to finance and support.”
Shevaun Haviland, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, said expanding the Accelerator would give more founders access to practical advice and peer networks, supporting confident and sustainable growth across the UK.
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