Scottish Enterprise says it helped Scottish businesses generate £2.15 billion in international exports in 2025/26, describing it as one of Scotland’s strongest trade performances of the past five years.
The figure heads a set of results from the agency’s 2025/26 annual report, alongside more than 12,450 new and safeguarded Real Living Wage jobs — nearly 5,000 of them higher-paid roles — £348 million in growth funding leveraged by Scottish businesses, £355 million in innovation investment, over £1 billion in business capital expenditure and 518,000 tonnes of CO2 savings across supported businesses and projects. Scottish Enterprise said it achieved or exceeded target ranges across most of its key performance measures during the year.
The results were unveiled during a visit to Stirling-based CAVU Aerospace UK, a Scottish space engineering company developing mission-critical technologies for satellites and deep-space missions. With Scottish Enterprise support, CAVU generated more than £7.5 million in export sales during 2025/26, securing contracts across Europe, Asia, America and the Middle East.
“Scottish Enterprise has delivered another strong performance, meeting key targets by drawing on established strengths in internationalisation, innovation and investment and creating significant economic impact for Scotland. We’re delivering regionally, nationally and internationally for Scotland’s economy,” said Adrian Gillespie, Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise.
“Companies across Scotland continue to show ambition, innovation and resilience, and are expanding into international markets, developing new technologies, creating high-quality jobs and securing investment that will create future growth. CAVU is a fantastic example of this, and it was great to visit them and hear about their ambitious growth plans. It’s exciting to see CAVU strengthen Scotland’s expanding space sector with its capabilities and growing international experience.”
Gillespie added: “We’ve delivered this performance while contributing to the Scottish Government’s Public Service Reform agenda, creating savings to invest in digital and AI capability to develop new approaches to support businesses that will ultimately deliver even greater economic impact for Scotland.”
Scottish Enterprise said the 12,450 jobs figure was slightly below its expectations for the year, reflecting the impact of global challenges on major investment decisions, but described it as a strong performance in the current climate.
“Scottish Enterprise has played an important role in helping us promote Made-in-Scotland at global space events, supporting our journey into international markets and contributing to our involvement in ground-breaking space missions worldwide,” said Dr Ali Maani, Chief Engineer at CAVU Aerospace UK.
“Today, we export high-tech products like flight computers and cameras to space agencies, prime contractors, satellite companies and universities across the USA, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Europe and beyond.”
Maani added: “We are ambitious to grow further and contribute more in space missions to help humanity expand our understanding of the universe and materialise multiplanetary life by delivering world-class space technology from Scotland.”
“The ability of Scottish companies to grow both domestically and internationally is critical to Scotland’s economic growth. So I warmly welcome Scottish Enterprise’s ability to secure £2.15 billion in export sales last year. At a time of heightened challenge in global trading, this is a resounding endorsement of the resilience and ambition of our Scottish businesses, and the high quality goods and services they sell around the world,” said Stephen Flynn, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport.
