Sussex Innovation has announced the launch of Scale Up Brighton & Hove 2026, a proven events and mentoring series to support the city’s ambitious business leaders. Starting in February 2026, the eight-week programme will bring together 35 Brighton & Hove-based B2B business leaders to share advice, experiences and growing pains as they go about scaling their businesses.

Replicating and building upon the successful model from last year’s Scale Up Brighton & Hove series, it will include fortnightly workshop sessions focused on key leadership challenges, facilitated peer-to-peer problem solving, Q&As with successful local founders and MDs, and a course of one-to-one mentoring to address specific barriers to growth.

“Scale Up Brighton & Hove was one of our most successful programmes last year,” said, Nigel Lambe, Chief Executive of Sussex Innovation. “We are delighted that Brighton & Hove City Council has recognised the impact of our consultancy and support by asking us to run it again for a new cohort. We’ve learnt from last year’s feedback to design an even better offering, and our team is excited to help another group of ambitious business leaders on their growth journeys.”

The Scale Up Brighton & Hove programme is supported by Brighton & Hove Growth Hub, a Brighton & Hove City Council service providing free and accessible support for all businesses in the city, funded by the UK Government. It is accessible free of charge to any B2B company with between 5-50 employees registered in Brighton & Hove.

Catrina Bassett is Managing Director of software developers DabApps, and participated in the 2025 Scale Up Brighton & Hove programme. “What I valued most was the chance to connect with other founders and leaders – to have honest, open conversations about the challenges we all face,” she said. “There’s something really powerful about being in a room with people from different sectors, sharing perspectives. That kind of diversity helps you to think more creatively and act with more clarity.”

The programme will launch with an all-day session at Sussex Innovation Centre on Thursday 5th February, exploring the organisational habits that underpin consistent growth. Four further half-day sessions exploring different core scale-up challenges will follow each fortnight, through to the end of March. For more information and to register your interest, visit the programme page here.