Barclays Eagle Labs Re-launches its Startup Accelerator for Black Tech Founders

Barclays Eagle Labs has partnered with Foundervine [CEO Izzy Obeng pictured] to launch its second 12-week virtual accelerator program designed just for Black-founded early-stage tech businesses.

The program, which officially kicks off on November 22, was created to help new startups founded by one or more black entrepreneurs access resources to help them with sales strategy, operations, product development, and leadership.

According to Barclays, applications are now open for the Accelerator to UK-based digital and tech start or scale-ups with a “minimum viable proposition for their business and with one or more black founders.”

Its been widely reported that more than 200 firms have already applied for the 2021 Accelerator, where just 40 firms will be selected when applications end on October 8.

The 2021 program lead, Liz Boadi, who also acts as an Ecosystem Manager, said: “The feedback we received from last year’s cohort was amazing, and we want to build on that and help even more black entrepreneurs this year.

“We hope by giving the founders access to the knowledge and expertise we can help accelerate their growth and unlock the potential that we know is waiting.”

The Accelerator will last 12 weeks, ending with a ‘Demo Day’ in February 2022. The day will be a chance for several founders to present their business to potential clients and investors.

Co-founder of fintech ScribePay, Delphine Emenyonu, is a previous participant of the Black Founder Accelerator 2020. She told Startups.co.uk that it was “very challenging to be a founder, but there are additional challenges being a person of colour, so I felt it [the Accelertor] would meet both my business needs and my cultural needs as well.

“I learnt so much from the programme, and it has really accelerated our business – when I first came, it was just an idea, now we’re building the MVP.”