ONE ENTERPRISING business is £2000 better off after scooping a top award.

Glasgow start-up Fair Squared won the cash after pitching itself to a panel of distinguished judges at the Entrepreneuring Awards.

The gongs were organised by Entrepreneurial Spark, the world’s largest business Hatchery, in partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland and KPMG.

Firms based at Entrepreneurial Spark’s three Scottish Hatcheries picked up £65,000 in prizes after pitching their business ideas at the awards bash in Glasgow.

Glasgow based Fair Squared won the Pitching Competition category for Scotland along with two other Scottish-based companies and picked up £2000 each in funding to further help it on the road to success.

The firm is one of dozens already receiving free space in Entrepreneurial Spark’s business incubator in Glasgow, which includes a range of advice, support and mentoring from top business figures.

Many of the businesses have been highlighted in the Evening Times weekly Glasgow Means Business column.

Other companies that also took awards were: Get Me Active, winning the Hatchery #GoDo award along with £4000; Connect In won £4000 for the Nest #GoDo award; Cosneta won the Chiclet Choice award and £2000; Blind Spot Gear won the Acceler-8 Award along with £6000; and Bonny Vitta won the Entrepreneur of the Moment award and £10,000.

It brings a total of £28,000 awarded towards the prize winning companies in Glasgow’s Hatchery.

Gordon Merrylees, head of entrepreneurship at Royal Bank of Scotland, said: “It’s incredibly important that we support entrepreneurs, as they are the wealth creators and the lifeblood of the UK economy.

"The standard of today’s pitches demonstrated Scotland’s enormous entrepreneurial talent.

“The Entrepreneuring Awards are a tremendous and fitting celebration of the work of Entrepreneurial Spark, the superb collaboration across the local ecosystems and the hard-working entrepreneurs within its accelerators as they achieve their growth potential and ambitions as the programme expands across the UK.”

Gary Deans, partner, KPMG Enterprise, which also supports Entrepreneurial Spark and its Chiclets, said: “It’s essential to provide ambitious start-ups with the finance they need to grow, but also to make sure that they have a clear vision for their business and a plan in place to use those funds to grow sustainably.

"The pitching element of the Entrepreneuring Awards ensures that the winners are invariably well prepared for the challenges ahead.”

Jim Duffy, chief executive of Entrepreneurial Spark, said: “This has been a wonderful celebration of the spirit of entrepreneuring, which is a phrase we coined to denote the Go-Do attitude and desire to bring about positive change for themselves and others that characterises the brilliant businesspeople that we support. My congratulations to all the winners across our Hatcheries across the UK – I’m sure this will spur them on to even greater things.”