Virgin StartUp announces new £36m funding pot to support UK business founders

Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit home of entrepreneurship at the Virgin Group, will be tripling the number of UK founders it supports over the next two years, distributing up to £36m in Start Up Loans.

Founded by Sir Richard Branson in 2013, the startup incubator has been a proud Business Support Partner of the Business British Bank’s Start Up Loan scheme for 10 years and has already distributed £70m in funding to 5,000 UK business founders. In 2019, the company also announced its 50/50 pledge to equally support women and men founders.

This “crucial” expansion means that Virgin StartUp will support an estimated 3,000 early-stage founders over the next two years, opening access to finance for thousands of new would-be business owners from across the UK who often struggle to secure finance from traditional lenders.

In the past decade, Virgin StartUp has funded some of the fastest growing UK start-ups including DASH Water, Castore, NICE Drinks and Mous, an award-winning, global tech accessories company that designs and manufactures protective tech accessories.

In 2014, Mous received a £7,000 Start Up Loan through Virgin StartUp which gave the brand the kickstart it needed. Mous now has 1.8 million customers in more than 150 countries worldwide and the company is valued at £65m.

Mous has also just been selected by James Watt, the founder and CEO of BrewDog, as one of the five winners in his search for the next billion-pound unicorn business. As part of this initiative the public can invest and get shares alongside James on the same terms and their raise is live now.

James Griffith, CEO and co-founder of Mous, commented: “We attended a workshop run by Virgin StartUp and quit our jobs right away. We didn’t waste any time putting that Start Up Loan to good use and used the funds to buy a 3D printer.”

Today’s news follows research from Virgin StartUp in January showing 26 per cent of UK adults were interested in setting up a business this year, rising to 46 per cent of 18-24 year-olds.

Andy Fishburn, managing director at Virgin StartUp, added: “There is nothing more inspiring than listening to the ideas of new business founders who want to have a positive impact in the world.

“In the past 10 years, we’ve had the pleasure of supporting 5,000 founders with a Start Up Loan and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate this milestone than to announce that we will be funding many thousands more over the next few years.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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