An investor says it wants to give more support to social entrepreneurs from ethnic minorities in the North and the Midlands to help fill the multi-billion-pound funding gap.
Business led by Black and Asian entrepreneurs frequently struggle to find the financial support they need to grow. A recent study by the Black United Representation Network (BURN) showed that if those barriers to support were removed in Greater Manchester, the local economy could be boosted by as much as £4bn thanks to the resulting business and jobs growth.
Now social investor Key Fund says it wants to “step up” to offer support to those groups across the Midlands, Yorkshire, the North East and the North West.
Key Fund was founded in South Yorkshire in 1999 by social entrepreneurs and philanthropists to support communities hit by the collapse of the coal and steel industries. The fund offers loans and grants of between £5,000 and £300,000 to social enterprises in deprived communities, and focuses on those who aim to create positive social or environmental impact, as well as profit.
So far it has awarded £49.4m in loans and £23.3m in grants, which have created or sustained 3,000 businesses and more than 4,000 jobs.
Its CEO Matt Smith said: “Key Fund has a long history of reaching the most disadvantaged places, but we’re aware the most marginalised groups in these places have traditionally been unable to access finance. Our mission to create successful communities can’t work if there are people still left behind. There is a profound need, and we have to step up to meet it.
“At Key Fund, we pride ourselves in getting the right money, into the right hands, at the right time. We need to do more to address shocking discrimination. If you’re a social entrepreneur who has been turned down by your bank, or struggled with cultural or language barriers, our door is open. Please talk to us.”
Dr Marilyn Comrie OBE, an award-winning social entrepreneur and founder of BURN, said: “Understanding the specific barriers that ethnic minorities face is a crucial first step in creating solutions that can overcome long-standing racial inequities. We’re thrilled Key Fund, as a leader in the social investment sector, has recognised this issue, and look forward to working with them to help our economy be one where all can thrive.”
The Barriers to Inclusion report from BURN in Manchester made a number of recommendations to improve support for Black and Asian entrepreneurs, including the creation of a network of customised business support delivered by diverse providers familiar with the challenges those entrepreneurs faced.
Key Fund will be launching a series of workshops aimed at ethnic minority social entrepreneurs, and will also be championing some of its existing clients.
Investees in the last year include Highway Hope in Manchester, a social enterprise hub that includes discount food stores, a beauty salon for people from ethnic minorities and educational programmes. Key Fund invested £19,200 in loan and £5,800 grant support to help its CEO, Esther Oludipe, develop its community café.
She said: “If I have the opportunity to do something, and if I can find people who can help do it, I just need to empower it.”
In Hull, it invested in Toranj Tuition, which was founded by three Iranian nationals to help migrants into work and today also runs educational programmes for children. Key Fund’s support will help the company to buy its own building and become more sustainable.
Dr Pedram Saeid from Toranj said: “My passion is to help. The cause that we believe in keeps us going.”
Key Fund has also backed Newcastle’s Africawad, founded by asylum seeker Afi Dometi, which each year saves saves 300,000 kilos of unwanted clothes from landfill and supports more than 20 women into education or employment. The business can then help women in Africa to create their own micro-businesses in the clothing sector, and can pay for the tuition of dozens of school girls in Togo each year.
Ms Dometi said: “If women have education, their children will have education too; it will help the continent, it will stop war, it will stop immigration, it will stop dictatorship.”
In Leicester Key Fund has backed Yasin El Ashrafi as he expands his HQ Recording studio, where he has mentored hundreds of disadvantaged young people who want to get into the music industry.
He said: “From the commercial side…we want to go to the top.”
Original artice – https://business-live.co.uk/all-about/yorkshire-humber
