FEATURE: GROWING YOUR BUSINESS Initiatives F
ollowing a successful year which saw more start-ups invest in Birmingham that any other UK city, it has never been more important for the right initiatives to be in place to support and
nurture new talent. More than 14,000 companies were set up in the city during 2015, a 95%
increase on the previous year – and Innovation Birmingham’s ‘Entrepreneurs for the Future’ (e4f) start-up support programme is the largest and most established tech incubator in the city. In fact, alongside e4f, the ‘Serendip® Smart City Incubator’ at Innovation Birmingham Campus are two of just a handful of programmes across the city which are helping to drive Birmingham’s entrepreneurial spirit. E4f Inspire is a coaching and mentoring programme designed to accelerate
the growth of entrepreneurial tech companies in the Midlands. By supporting tech businesses which have been based at the campus for over a year, members of the programme benefit from skill development workshops, entrepreneur dinners, off-site visits; funded/apprenticeship placements, one- to-one meetings with an Entrepreneur in Residence; peer group sessions and regular keynote events which are open to over 150 business leaders across Greater Birmingham. The programme also has a state-of-the-art Test Lab with £10,000 of
devices and software; designed to test the functionality of new apps and games across a range of the latest iOS and Android devices. With a digital graphics pad, camcorder, directional microphone; WXGA projector, licensed load impact software for performance testing and licensed browser stack software for further compatibility testing, businesses on e4f Inspire have access to all the necessary tools to get their business off the ground. Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), e4f
Inspire also goes a long way towards achieving its aim of stimulating economic growth and has so far successfully incubated over 120 start-ups and created over 180 new employee and director positions since November 2009. Its on-going success has also enabled a variety of innovative tech companies based at Innovation Birmingham Campus to secure over £10 million of investment during initial funding rounds. The availability of growth capital, ability to rapidly market-test ideas and
access to expertise are significant factors in a start-up business’ ability to prosper. The e4f Inspire and Serendip® programmes provide all of these ingredients; offering a higher degree of confidence to both entrepreneurs and potential investors that their businesses will succeed.
40 CHAMBERLINK APRIL 2016
inspiring new talent in Birmingham
The growth of many of the Entrepreneurs for the Future graduate
companies is testament to these programmes, which help to launch businesses in sector-specific incubation centres, creating new jobs for the local economy and further drive the growth of Birmingham’s tech community. Innovation Birmingham’s Serendip® Smart City Incubator follows the
success of the e4f Inspire Programme and will be delivered as part of its upcoming 42,149 sq ft iCentrum® building. The programme pairs promising start-ups with large, national corporate partners, enabling them to collaboratively market-test and refine their products. As its name suggests, Serendip® will occupy the whole 11,845 sq ft first
floor of iCentrum and will harness the power of serendipity, encouraging the development of ideas between four themes: Internet of Things, Intelligent Mobility; Digital Health and Barclays Eagle Labs. These will be delivered in partnership with RWE npower, Centro and the Transport Systems Catapult, West Midlands Academic Health Science Network and Barclays. Providing free high-tech office space for six months, mentoring from
experienced entrepreneurs and access to innovation focussed events; the incubator allows start-ups to work with commercial partners from the start; to boost their growth, reduce risk to potential investors and to maximise their chance of success. This programme complements the e4f Inspire programme by extending its reach to work directly with corporate partners. With Birmingham successfully retaining its position as the most
entrepreneurial UK city outside London in 2015, e4f Inspire, Serendip® and other similar projects encourage the creation of an aspirational business community that enables young businesses to form partnerships, share ideas and develop their skills and experience, without having to leave the city. It is initiatives such as these that are essential to enhancing the city’s appeal as a centre for technology, innovation and digital expertise. By providing links to financial support and the right platform to support
and accelerate new businesses, it will not only encourage the best of Birmingham’s start-ups and entrepreneurs to stay and excel in their home city, but will also help to entice new talent – both nationally and internationally – as the city continues to highlight itself as a start-up hotspot.
For more information on e4f Inspire, please visit:
www.e4f.co.uk Alternatively, for additional details on Innovation Birmingham and Serendip®, visit:
www.innovationbham.com For further information, please contact Sophie Taylor, PR manager at Innovation Birmingham at
SophieT@innovationbham.com
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