Birmingham Enterprise Community (BEC) has launched a fund raise that will support the growth of exciting early stage ventures looking for support within the Midlands region by providing direct equity investment as part of their FORWARD Accelerator programme based in Birmingham’s award winning Alpha Works.

The fund, which is to be raised through private investment under the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), will form part of a radical and comprehensive package of support received by the businesses as they join the FORWARD Accelerator Programme, launched in July 2019, which will also include access to a pool of international mentors, support from partners such as IBM, Google & Amazon, workspace, coaching, access to both local and global networks and support to gain follow on finance.

Businesses will be invited to apply to FORWARD from 2nd January 2020 with the next programme commencing in April 2020.

Daniel Evans, Chief Executive Officer, Birmingham Enterprise Community, said:

“Since our official launch in January 2018 we have rapidly developed into a significant source of support for startups within the Midlands region. The establishment of this fund signifies another radical step forward for Birmingham Enterprise Community and the businesses that it serves.

“It also sends out the signal that the Midlands is making serious moves in becoming a place where you can both start and grow your business”.