Royal Bank of Scotland has named Catriona Penny as its venture banking director, creating dedicated coverage in Scotland for high-growth companies and the investors who back them. The bank announced the appointment at the 2026 Female Founders Growth Summit, held at its Gogarburn offices in Edinburgh. Royal Bank of Scotland is part of NatWest Group, and the role brings the group’s venture banking service north of the border.
Penny will work with venture-backed, innovation-led and technology businesses as they look for the capital they need to expand and compete internationally. The venture banking unit offers sector specialists and flexible funding to founders and investors at important stages of growth. She joins a UK-wide team that mixes regional and industry knowledge, and she can call on other parts of NatWest Group, including the Royal Bank Accelerator and the bank’s partnership with Amazon Web Services.
She has spent more than 20 years in financial services in Edinburgh and London, with spells at Lloyds Banking Group and Virgin Money. Her most recent post was senior director for growth and acquisition finance at Virgin Money, where she provided loans of up to £10m to UK companies backed by venture capital. Her formal title at Royal Bank of Scotland is venture banking relationship director.
Jenny Edwards, head of venture banking at NatWest Group, said the hire extends the bank’s venture offering to founders and investors in Scotland. She described the team as a combination of sector specialists, investor networks, partnerships and tailored lending, and said dedicated Scottish coverage builds on the groundwork the bank has already laid through its accelerator programme and its university partnerships.
Penny said she was joining the venture banking team at an exciting time and that the role would add to the support available to Scottish entrepreneurs who are scaling up. She named energy transition, life sciences, advanced manufacturing and digital technology as sectors where fast-growing Scottish firms have strong prospects. She also pointed to the gender gap in company formation: only one in five founders in Scotland is a woman. Encouraging more women to start and grow businesses is, in her words, “one of the biggest opportunities” for the country’s start-up sector.
