More tech start-ups enrol onto Innovation Birmingham’s Entrepreneurs for the Future programme.
Five more tech start-ups have enrolled at Innovation Birmingham’s Entrepreneurs for the Future centre. The business incubation programme has been running for five years, and to date the start-ups have secured over £6.7 million of investment during initial funding rounds.
Entrepreneurs for the Future is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The programme has incubated over 100 start-ups, with 180 new employee and director positions created since November 2009.
The latest new tech ventures are: Leads Generator; an application being developed by a team of technical specialists to generate and track business leads cost effectively. Secret Cop is a proprietary early hacking/malware detection service aimed at the SME website market. Wambiz builds controlled social networks for schools, colleges and universities that better enable teachers and students to communicate, collaborate and share crucial educational content in a safe and secure online platform. Emble is a new e-commerce web application for organising paid for events with friends, family and colleagues, such as hen and stag do’s, staff gatherings and birthday parties. Labour Xchange is a more socially inclusive direct recruitment model for ‘blue collar’ job seekers.
Dr David Hardman MBE, CEO of Innovation Birmingham said: “The Innovation Birmingham Campus is fully let, with a lot of the recent uptake in office space coming from the expansion of the businesses that have graduated from the Entrepreneurs for the Future centre. These innovative businesses are creating new jobs for the local economy and driving the growth of Birmingham’s tech community.”
“Launching a new business in a sector specific incubation centre ensures it has a much better chance of succeeding and becoming commercially viable in a short period of time, which is proven by the growth of many of the Entrepreneurs for the Future graduate companies. The fact that they can take additional space as they grow – whilst remaining at the Innovation Birmingham Campus – means that they can readily remain in and benefit from our active tech community.”
The tech start-ups who are based at the Entrepreneurs for the Future centre are mentored and coached by a team of Entrepreneurs in Residence, who also establish the best routes to finance. Visiting expert sessions, a whole series of events, networking opportunities and peer-to-peer support are also essential contributors to the incubation ecosystem offered by Innovation Birmingham.
Those enrolled onto Entrepreneurs for the Future also now benefit from nine months free office space, telecoms, meeting rooms and superfast broadband. The programme is creating around 20 new tech start-ups per year, strengthening Birmingham’s knowledge community with businesses with real growth potential.
Innovation Birmingham has designed the tech incubation programme in order to capture serial entrepreneurs, who as individuals are working on more than one project concurrently. The Innovation Birmingham Campus is open 24/7, enabling people to work flexibly, or cram in the hours when needed.
For more information on Entrepreneurs for the Future, please visit www.e4f.com and www.innovationbham.com
