The Royal Bank of Scotland and law firm Harper Macleod have announced a new partnership to offer expert legal advice to Scotland’s entrepreneurs through the Royal Bank Accelerator programme.
Announced on 10 August 2026, the agreement will see a dedicated solicitor assigned to the Glasgow and Edinburgh Accelerator hubs, offering 1-1 surgery sessions and in-person legal advice at both locations. Legal advice will also be delivered remotely through the Accelerator app to 2,300 community members across Scotland.
How the support works
Initial legal advice will be delivered free of charge to Accelerator community members, with further commercial work offered at a discounted rate. The support is designed to run throughout the founder journey, from startup to scaling business.
The partnership will also see Harper Macleod supporting key events at the Accelerator hubs, including Glasgow Tech Week.
An expanding Accelerator programme
The Royal Bank Accelerator is seeing significant growth, having announced partnerships with the University of Edinburgh and STAC in recent months. The programme has the stated ambition to support 5,000 Scottish startups in 2026 alone — more than in the last ten years combined.
Bank view
Darren Pirie, Head of Accelerator and Partnerships at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said: “For many new entrepreneurs commercial agreements and legal blockers can be difficult, complex and costly to navigate. The core aim of our Accelerator programme has always been to remove the barriers to growth, through tailored support to startups and growing businesses.
“That is why our new partnership with Harper Macleod is so exciting. It brings dedicated in-person and virtual legal advice for the very first time to our community members, to unravel these challenges.
“This agreement broadens the Royal Bank of Scotland’s support for our innovation economy as we continue to work towards backing 5,000 Scottish entrepreneurs this year.”
Law firm view
Jo Nisbet, a partner specialising in supporting entrepreneurs at Harper Macleod, said: “Harper Macleod has a long and proud history of working alongside Scotland’s entrepreneurs from the earliest stages of their journey through to scale and beyond. We know that the decisions taken at the outset of a business can have a lasting impact, which is why access to clear, practical legal advice at the right time is so important.
“Through our partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland Accelerator, we’re very proud to provide dedicated, accessible support to founders right where they are building their businesses. By helping entrepreneurs navigate key issues early, from structuring and investment to contracts and compliance, we can remove uncertainty, reduce risk, and help set strong foundations for sustainable growth.”
A well structured support mechanism
Legal cost and complexity are consistently cited by early-stage founders as a barrier to raising capital and structuring a company well. Embedding a solicitor into the Accelerator’s Glasgow and Edinburgh hubs — and pushing free initial advice into a remote app used by 2,300 members — is a practical, at-scale intervention rather than a one-off event.
The deal also fits a pattern of partnership announcements sitting alongside the Accelerator’s growth push in 2026: the University of Edinburgh and STAC (the Smart Things Accelerator Centre) have both come on board in recent months, and RBS says it is aiming to back 5,000 Scottish entrepreneurs in 2026 — a step-change on prior years.
