45%  of the tech scale-up businesses in the UK believe that the Government’s approach to Brexit and international trade will have no impact on them, while 30% think they stand to benefit, says the report. 52% report improved financial health among their trading partners.

Scale-up businesses in tech space are also optimistic about other areas of government policy agenda, with one in three (30%) believing they stand to benefit from the recent Apprenticeship Levy and just 10% critical of it

68% of tech scale-up businesses said they felt Government policy was supportive of business compared to 38% of their slower growth competitors.

Less than one in 40 businesses businesses experience scale-up.

Smith & Williamson interviewed 500 scale-ups and over 500 firms yet to achieve scale-up.

The study considered what traits scale-up businesses and their founders share UK wide. One conclusion is that younger entrepreneurs, raised as digital natives, are flourishing, with 42% of scale-up founders aged 34 and under.

Half (50%) of high-growth companies say technological advances have been critical to their growth, compared to just 18% of slower-growth firms.  More than a third (34%) also believe that having an innovative business plan has been key to their success. This falls to a quarter (27%) among non-scale-ups, and to 21% among micro-companies, employing ten or less people.

The research also shows that scale-ups display a greater sense of urgency than other businesses. Almost one in three (32%) reach their high-growth status in just three years, while eight in ten (84%) join the club within a decade of launching. After this, the chances of a business achieving consistent high growth fall significantly.