Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park ‘propels’ local startups and scaleups to new heights

A strategic partnership designed to help early-stage businesses in the sport, health and wellbeing sectors “innovate, collaborate and grow” has been established at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park.

Spearheaded by Scarborough Group International (SGI), the development partner responsible for delivering the next phase of Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park and Propel Teams, the partnership will provide startups and scaleups with access to flexible workspace alongside a community of entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, advisors and service providers.

Led by an onsite team located at the brand new flex workspace at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, ‘Landing Pad powered by Propel’ is aiming to create entrepreneurial opportunities for up to 100,000 individuals, and create a “pathway” to guide more than 10,000 businesses to fulfil their financial and social impact potential over the next seven years.

Complementing the growing number of accelerator programmes based at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, which currently includes P4SY and AWRC Wellbeing and, with support from Team SY, Propel Teams will also host its own sports technology accelerator at Landing Pad.

Jump is a two-month-long hybrid programme specifically curated for founders of sports technology startups creating products or services that either improve sporting performance, reduce the risk of injury or improve enjoyment or participation in sport.

Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park is a “unique” proposition; the only Olympic Legacy Park outside a host city anywhere in the world, created with a shared vision that brings together public and private sector organisations alongside elite athletes to pioneer transformational health and wellbeing research, innovation and applied technology.

Mark Jackson, group development director at SGI, commented: “Sheffield is a city with great entrepreneurial spirit and a wealth of resources in health, wellbeing, sports and activity. It is therefore uniquely well-positioned to support the UK’s innovation-led growth agenda.

“However, we recognise that we also need to develop a supportive economic environment, facilities and business services to help organisations to innovate, collaborate and grow.

“Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park is already home to an extraordinary cluster of health innovation assets and elite sporting facilities, which provide a great foundation for its continued growth.

“We established our partnership with Propel to develop the business and innovation ‘ecosystem’ within a high quality working environment, and we are delighted to welcome them to the team.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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