New half a million-pound fund launched to help grow start-up businesses and social enterprises in Camden
Camden Council is launching a new grant support scheme for local people to start and grow businesses and social enterprises in the borough.
Camden is committing half a million pounds to the Future Camden Fund which is being launched to help impactful start-up businesses and social enterprises in Camden that are under 5 years old grow.
The fund will support local entrepreneurs from backgrounds that are often locked out from other sources of finance, including those often from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, those with a disability, care leavers and female business founders.
At the start of the scheme, up to £150,000 will be distributed in grants to local businesses, with a further £400,000 to be allocated for other new businesses later in the year in a mix of funding, including repayable grants.
The fund will also offer a whole host of free business support to recipients including mentoring, learning courses and peer support.
In Camden, we’re at the forefront of supporting start-up businesses, with recent research indicating that Camden has the highest number of start-ups in London. We are committed to assisting all of our residents to achieve their own business goals. No one should be prevented from launching their own business because of where they were born, their background, or that they may lack family financing. If people have promising business ideas, we want to make sure they can make them a reality in Camden.
The Future Camden Fund is the first of its kind for a London borough and is an exclusively local impact fund that combines grants with a repayable element, alongside free business support. I’m certain this fund will go a long way to support local new businesses and entrepreneurs across the borough and to help make sure our local economy is not only growing, but also growing more equally across all our communities.
The Council has commissioned Social Investment Business (SIB) – a social investor which supports charities and social enterprises to become more resilient and sustainable - to manage the funding and repayable grants over the three-year fund pilot period.
The Future Camden Fund will seek to support start-ups to grow their products and services that support inclusive job creation and growth, sustainability, and the environment.
Local start-up businesses and social enterprises will be able to apply from Monday 24 January and the fund will be receiving applications for five days.
For more information on the scheme and how you can apply, please visit www.camden.gov.uk/future-camden-fund.
