Impact Hub London
London United Kingdom
2008
About Impact Hub London
Impact Hub London (IHL) has been supporting social entrepreneurs for 15 years. We seek to inspire, connect and enable people to take entrepreneurial action to pioneer a just and sustainable world where business and profit are in service of people and planet. We are part of a global network of 111 Impact Hubs and over 26,000 impact-driven members. Alongside running two coworking spaces (Kings Cross and Euston) and a engaged online community, we deliver early and growth stage programmes and capacity building for social entrepreneurs and convene ecosystems for them to collaborate, learn and deliver impact at scale. In order to develop a fairer and more sustainable economy, IHL provides targeted business support programmes aimed at entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds that ordinarily have less access to such support. These efforts help ensure that the sector is more inclusive and enables people to improve their livelihood and the lives of their families and communities through entrepreneurship. Recognised as sector leaders in London, we are deeply engaged within the social enterprise sector, local communities, corporates and local government. We are part of the Collective Leaders Group that include Hatch and the Young Foundation, and a founding member of The Knowledge Quarter, with whom we are planning to open a new inclusive innovation space in spring 2024. Partners and collaborators include SEUK, Bank of America, London & Partners, Islington, Camden and Barking & Dagenham Councils, the GLA, housing associations and local community organisations. When delivering business support programmes, our expertise lies in our ability to design and facilitate our programmes for and most importantly, with our participants. Our programmes are typically co-designed first by our participants and with various sector experts through workshops, consultations and interviews. We ultimately seek to bridge the gap between our participants and the local government, non-profit organisation and corporate funders, to address their needs and respond to the pressing barriers they face. We have a track record of delivering human-centred programmes for underserved entrepreneurs in London, in order to reframe innovation and give community members a voice in these spaces: Circular Start-Up: An 18-month early stage programme supporting 50 entrepreneurs from lower socio-economic backgrounds to start circular businesses in London. Funded by JP Morgan, and delivered across Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Newham, this programme brought together different sector experts, such as ReLondon, the Ellen McArthur Foundation and Donut Economics Action Lab, to build a comprehensive programme designed to support entrepreneurs furthest from the climate and innovation space. In the context of addressing climate change and achieving net-zero targets, we recognise the importance of the collaboration between London local councils and businesses. Local councils play a pivotal role in setting and implementing sustainable policies and initiatives at the community level. By actively working with businesses, councils can leverage the influence of the private sector to accelerate the transition towards a low-carbon economy. Over the course of the programme we delivered 100 hours of 1:1 and mentor support per participant, delivered quality technical assistance, 8 workshops and 9 peer to peer support sessions. Since its inception in February 2022 the resulted in 23 launched and formalised businesses that contribute to the circular economy ecosystem in London. New Roots: A 9-month mentoring and peer-to-peer business support programme for entrepreneurs from minoritised ethnic communities and from migrant/refugee backgrounds. The programme builds skills and provides access to the resources, network, and expertise needed to establish a successful enterprise or career. To date, 108 participants have been engaged over 4 cohorts, with 70% successfully launching an enterprise. The most recent cohort of entrepreneurs were also specifically focussed on launching sustainable businesses. GROW Fund: As part of Barking & Dagenham Giving’s new GROW Fund, IHL are the delivery partner supporting 8 local social enterprises to become investment ready. This fund is a unique example of community-led investing; developed by residents of the borough, the fund aims to support entrepreneurs and community leaders in creating stronger communities for people and the planet. IHL’s role is to support the community-selected participants to become investment ready, in order that they are able to receive potential investment at the end of the programme. As part of the programme we also supported all participating businesses to become sustainable and adopt greener and more circular principles. The fund aims to look at the total impact of an enterprise, rather than just the return on investment, so our work also focuses on supporting the enterprises around their impact focus areas and impact measurement. Boosting Life Science & Social Economy; Incubation & Mentoring: A consortium of 7 London boroughs (Camden, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Lamberth, Southwark & Tower Hamlets), MedCity, and a range of other stakeholders, including IHL, have come together to do more to support inclusion and diversity in health and life sciences. Following a successful bid to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund the coalition aims to deliver a 22-month project to boost the London life sciences social economy. The project will support emerging social businesses and potential entrepreneurs in public health and life sciences, thereby increasing opportunities for underserved communities to benefit from economic opportunities in these sectors. IHL have been contracted to deliver several activities across London as part of the project, including 2 community co-creation events, 2 innovation challenge events, and 2 incubator programmes, to support 20 entrepreneurs from marginalised backgrounds, to incubate business ideas aimed at addressing local health inequities. ASSETS (Assisting Social Enterprises to Succeed): ASSETS is a 7 month scaling programme that supports social enterprises in the construction and built environment industry supply chain that aim to scale their operations nationally and secure larger contracts. Since its inception 3 years ago, ASSETS has supported 17 social enterprises, worked with 56 mentors, and delivered over 1,000 hours of support. On average we measured 25% growth across participants, and since being on the programmes the enterprises have collectively contributed to the creation of 43 new jobs. The businesses themselves all make important contributions towards environment or social impact.
