London Business School looks to buck SME downturn with incubator programme
London Business School has tipped a wellness startup and postnatal depression firm as among the Capital’s most promising startups today as it looks to provide a platform for growth at a troubling time for the Capital’s smaller businesses.
London’s business education hub said it had called in 11 startups to the new programme, 60 per cent of which are led by founders from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, as it looks equip founders with the skills to grow and attract cash in an increasingly barren funding landscape.
The London Business School has been funnelling graduates of its executive MBA programme into the startup accelerator in recent years, with all of this year’s cohort joining from its business chief leadership programme.
Among the group of new firms backed by London Business School is CX, a chemical trading platform; d-one, a digital valuation tool, and Food of Gods, a startup specialising in Sri Lankan spices.
The programmes’ head and executive at Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital said it had been a bumper year of applications to the programme.
“The quality of applications continues to grow each year and we’re excited to see just how far this year’s cohort can go,” she said.
Firms in the programme are set to get the financial and educational backing of Santander, Amazon Web Services, and fintech giant Stripe. LBS alumni firms have gone on to raise more than £130m after going through the programme.
The school is looking to provide a boost to London start-ups at a time smaller firms are imploding across the capital amid soaring energy costs and rising interest rates.
Recent figures shared with City PM showed the number of SMEs that have disappeared in the capital swelled to 53,880 this year, up sharply from 37,350 in 2017, according to analysis of Office for National Statistics figures by the Liberal Democrats.