Update: Applications for the City Bridge Accelerator are now closed. You can browse our live and upcoming programmes here, or check out our available events here.
For World Entrepreneurs’ Day we take a look at what goes into building an impact business, and how our London Accelerator programme is set up to help.
London is an entrepreneurial city, and more than that it is a city committed to nurturing businesses with an impact focus. Our research this year found that 12% of people in London said they were running a business, compared with the national average of 7%, and the city was named B Corp capital of the world, accounting for nearly half of all UK B Corps.
We know that the appetite and the talent is here, and our City Bridge Accelerator is designed to support this talent, providing the mentorship, guidance, and funding needed to take an impact enterprise to the next level.
Building an Impact Business
Impact can mean a lot of things and there is no one right way to build or operate a social business. The umbrella of ‘business for good’ includes organisations that are set up to solve a problem in their communities that could be environmental (like Planet Patrol) or social (like Unseen Tours). It can also include businesses that are committed to ethical supply chains (like Calm Cocoa) or that support certain causes through their business model (like Leiho).
And yes, these are all Hatch supported businesses!
This is not exhaustive criteria, and there will often be overlap between these categories.
Understanding where impact fits into your business model and then being able to accurately measure and communicate it is a key step in the scaling journey of any social entrepreneur.
Hatch and Impact Businesses
The next generation of entrepreneurs are increasingly social-minded – according to a recent report those under 35 are twice as likely to say their business’s primary aim is to solve a social or environmental problem.
It’s positive to see this trend towards business for good, and we want to make sure that entrepreneurs have the tools and resources needed to scale up these impact organisations in a sustainable way.
In the last year 83% of our programme participants were working on a business that was tackling one of the Sustainable Development Goals. Several of our programmes, including the City Bridge Accelerator, are designed specifically for social entrepreneurs which is reflected in the content of the sessions and the experts we bring on board.
Alexandra Birtles, the founder of In Good Company, has completed several programmes with Hatch including an Accelerator specifically for impact businesses looking to grow.
She said: “There were loads of things that Hatch covered that I had no idea about in terms of what I needed to do as a business.
“For me, it was about the opportunity to have a really structured approach to learning, but also the space to really consider things that I maybe hadn’t thought about at all.
“I had heard really great things about Hatch and I think when you’re starting a business, it’s an incredibly daunting and potentially very lonely journey. Even with a co-founder who I’m very lucky to be in partnership with, it’s just the one or the two of you trying to figure things out.
“Everybody was hugely committed to what they were trying to do, which is really inspiring. Coming from a corporate background, I didn’t have a network of entrepreneur friends that I came into this with. It can be really helpful to find your people.”
The City Bridge Accelerator Programme
This online programme, running fortnightly over 6 months, is designed for London-based social entrepreneurs looking to secure substantial funding for growth. If you’ve ever hit a wall trying to access funding, develop effective ecosystem relationships, or measure and demonstrate your impact, then the Hatch Accelerator programme with City Bridge Foundation is for you.
All graduates are eligible to apply for grants of up to £7,000, and the programme is available at the subsidised price of only £100 thanks to funding from the City Bridge Foundation.
The programme runs from 16th September 2024 – 17th March 2025 with fortnightly sessions from 9:30am-11:30am. The full programme schedule, including module titles, is available to view here.
To qualify for the programme you must be a London-based founder with an annual turnover of roughly £40k, and availability to attend all sessions and the demo day. The deadline to apply is fast approaching, visit the programme page to learn more, or book in a call with one of the team.
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