Twenty fearless female founders of colour are on the path to launching their own businesses following a chance to develop their ideas through a trailblazing South London incubator programme.

Twenty BAME (black, Asian, and minority ethnic) female entrepreneurs participating in the programme have been selected from a variety of industries and backgrounds. They are working intensively on their businesses at Google’s dedicated learning space, Academy London. – a dedicated learning hub near Victoria station in central London, and with further backing from Google for Startups.

The programme provides five months of intensive support including two months of workshops focussing on business growth (e.g. business modelling, marketing, financial management, public relations and more), business coaching and dedicated networking sessions; followed by three months of expert mentoring for each individual. 

Hatch Enterprise Programme Manager, Bayo Adelaja, said:

“Without support, nine out of 10 entrepreneurs will fail over any given three-year time period. For the BAME community, 19 out of 20 female founders will fail over the same time period. With our Female Founders (BAME) Accelerator, we want to reduce failure rates by 70%, enabling at least 14 of the 20 female founders to build a sustainable business that survives beyond its third birthday.” 

This is an exciting initiative in the landscape of entrepreneurship in the UK, giving BAME female founders an opportunity to succeed, scale up and thrive. 

Hatch Enterprise is an award-winning incubator working primarily with under-represented groups of entrepreneurs.

For a number of years, it has supported ambitious female founders through a new style of programme that super-charges their businesses. Its newest programme, the Female Founders Accelerator, is based on insight gained by working with and listening to more than 100 female founders.

Research shows women-led businesses consistently outperform those led by men: the Untapped Unicorns report notes 34% of male entrepreneurs have seen a business fail compared with 23% of female founders, and women entrepreneurs bring in 20% more revenue with 50% less money invested. Although, only 20% of the SMEs in the UK are led by women and 6.2% of the SMEs in the UK are BAME led. 

www.hatchenterprise.org