Are you a woman with a new business, business idea or side-hustle hobby who is looking for support to launch and grow your business?
Engine Shed partner and tenant, SETsquared Bristol has opened applications for Enterprising Women 2.0, a fully funded pre-incubation programme for women-led businesses, in partnership with NatWest.
Now in its second year, Enterprising Women is designed to help women with businesses ideas get to the next stage of their development. Eighteen early-stage women entrepreneurs will be selected for the fully funded high-impact, low engagement programme. Over the course of the programme, they will receive access to mentoring, business advice and workshops, including how to fundraise. Enterprising Women 2.0 will culminate with a showcase and pitching event to recognise their achievements and launch their businesses.
SETsquared Bristol is committed to ensuring access to business support is inclusive for under-represented groups. They recently announced record leadership diversity of their 80 members, with women making up 45% of founders and people from a BAME background making up 23%. These figures compare favourably to the UK national average where less than 10% of women are CEOs in tech companies and less than 9% are senior tech leaders from a BAME background.
Monika Radclyffe, SETsquared Bristol Centre Director, said:
“NatWest’s Rose Review states that ‘advancing female entrepreneurship represents a £250 billion opportunity for the UK economy’. This is one of many reasons why we are committed to ensuring that women receive the best support to realise their business ideas.”
Cheryl Gourlay, National Women in Business Manager at NatWest, said:
“At NatWest, female entrepreneurship is a huge focus for us and given the disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on women-led businesses, there is no better time than now to be amplifying this support in whatever way we can. We already work with a number of great women-led businesses across South West, so the opportunity to support SETsquared for a second year to deliver their female entrepreneurship programme is hugely exciting.”
In 2020, Enterprising Women 1.0 supported a diverse range of businesses, ranging from AI for creative industries to hydroponic systems for indoor gardening.
How to apply
Enterprising Women 2.0 is open to women based in the UK with tech, tech-enabled or non-tech businesses or ideas. The application closing deadline is 8 May with a launch event on 22 April to find out more about the programme.
For full details and to apply – https://setsquared-bristol.co.uk/projects/enterprising-women/