PROFESSIONAL services giant PwC has announced an alliance with CodeBase, Europe’s largest technology incubator, to help accelerate its growth. PwC says the move reinforces its commitment to start-up and scale-up tech companies in Scotland.

Based at Argyle House in Edinburgh, CodeBase has more than quadrupled in size since its March 2014 launch by co-founders Jamie and Stephen Coleman.

It is home to more than 90 start-ups – including Administrate, QikServe, TVSquared and Care Sourcer – which employ more than 600 people. A Stirling incubator was announced earlier this month.

PWC’s investment be used to create space for more business and they will also have a physical presence at both sites.

CodeBase has helped to incubate scale-up companies which have raised more half-a-billion dollars of investment. The alignment will see PwC offer business support concentrating on a number of tailored services focused around its My Financepartner offering, a low-cost subscription service providing business advisory services.

The My Financepartner suite includes cloud-based accounting software, state-of-the-art management information reporting, payroll and traditional accounting and tax services in an easy to access format that fast growth businesses demand.

At PwC, the deal was pulled together by the My Financepartner team and the company’s head of innovation for Scotland, Douglas Shand. He said: “I’ve been involved with a lot of startups and scale-ups and very often they are companies which initially struggle to justify the cost and complexity of a traditional back office function.

“My Financepartner lets them choose the services they may want to use and pay for them as needed on a subscription payment model.

“Some of the work coming out of Codebase is cutting edge stuff. It’s exciting to be involved with it as it goes to the next level.”

CodeBase CEO Stephen Coleman said: “The partnership with PwC allows us to accelerate development at Argyle House on our journey to build a tech powerhouse in Edinburgh while our companies can tap into the firm’s global expertise.”