New start-up programme announced for black and minority ethnic entrepreneurs

Black and minority ethnic entrepreneurs (BAME) with start-ups in the creative industries will have the opportunity to access dedicated business support and mentoring through a new incubator programme which is set to launch in April.

The programme, available to BAME business owners outside of London, is the result of a new partnership between support network Creative England and social enterprise incubator MeWe360 and will seek to find and help “untapped” entrepreneurial talent across the UK in the film, TV, gaming and digital media sectors.

Each start-up selected for the programme will receive up to 40 hours of one-to-one mentoring, access to networking events and potential funding. It’s likely that the support will be mixture of online virtual support and offline, although this has not yet been confirmed.

The incubator is intended to foster greater diversity within Britain’s creative industry on the back of figures from the department of culture, media and sport which show that only 10.2% of creative sector jobs were filled by BAME workers in 2013.

Commenting on the launch, Creative England chief operating officer, Mejhabeen Price, said:

“Here at Creative England we discover, nurture, and celebrate exciting and diverse talent. The creative industry is booming, bringing an incredible £8.8m to the UK economy every hour. By teaming up with MeWe 360 we hope to find even more untapped talent, because everyone should be given the chance to benefit from a thriving creative economy.

Kevin Osborne, MeWe360 CEO, added: “This new partnership will help us […] encourage entrepreneurs from all backgrounds to fully participate in the UK’s creative industry.”

To find out more about the MeWe360 and Creative England incubator programme and to apply, click here.