Allia launches support programme for social & environmental ventures
Melanie May | 13 July 2016 | News
A free-to-access programme of skills, advice and support for social and environmental ventures launches in the South East today from Allia.
Called Serious Impact, the programme is open to any individual or organisation that aims to provide social and environmental impact, whether a pre-start, start-up or SME and regardless of the business model and structure.
The programme aims to deliver support to inspire entrepreneurship, drive growth and create sustainable ventures in sectors such as AgriTech, SocialTech, CleanTech, EdTech, Smart Cities and HealthTech, which aim to help solve social and environmental problems.
It is structured as a five-channel process:
- Channel one: workshops to inspire, draw out and develop the business ideas.
- Channel two: ideas testing and validating over a 60-day programme.
- Channel three: structured acceleration over three months to help entrepreneurs understand key business concepts, develop their business and financial plans, and prepare them to progress with their new impact venture.
- Channel four: structured “incubation” over nine months providing resources for promising and growing ventures including free incubator workspace, mentoring and access to connections and networks.
- Channel five: access to a new Innovation Lab in the Peterborough Future Business Centre offering rapid prototyping, creation and testing facilities for engineers, technology ventures and product designers exclusively for those enrolled on the programme.
Serious Impact will operate from Allia’s Future Business Centres in Cambridge and Peterborough, and has received £1.7m of investment from a mix of sources including the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Peterborough City Council and Allia itself.
Caroline Hyde, director of workspace and enterprise support at Allia, said:
“Serious Impact will help entrepreneurs to understand and prepare for all of the challenges and opportunities of running successful ventures, including those that will arise out of Brexit, and represents a significant opportunity for impact ventures to access the support needed to achieve long-term success and sustainability.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.