Entrepreneurs

There is no other bank like Barclays for the people who create and build businesses; our support for the entrepreneurial community goes beyond funding solutions, and includes expert advice and mentoring, leading insights, as well as access to essential networks. This commitment forms part of Barclays’ Citizenship agenda, and permeates across the group, from grass roots skills provision to product and thought leadership perspectives.

Barclays has a rich history, spanning more than three centuries, in supporting and driving innovation. Each year we support over 100,000 start-ups with nearly a third of these going on to export in their first 12 months of business. We have a relentless focus on pioneering innovation, and a commitment to fostering the emergence of new business and technologies today.

Barclays’ holistic approach is helping to establish a long-term pipeline of high growth businesses, ultimately driving job creation and economic growth at a local and national level. Since 2012, Barclays employees have volunteered more than 18,700 (18,710) hours to help deliver enterprise skills training in the communities in which we operate.

Our offering is uniquely based on our ability to help businesses no matter how large they grow, and our understanding of and support for the individuals behind them. Using our expertise to support progress in this way can make a powerful difference, and as such Barclays aims to be the partner of choice for people and organizations seeking to address social and economic challenges.

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Videos from this campaign

Content from this campaign

Diversity & Inclusion

Returning to Work with Barclays’ Encore! Programme
Before joining Barclays, Jo Aitken ran a sports organisation developing ambitious legacy initiatives in east London connected to the 2012 Olympics. In 2015, she took a year out to have a baby. One year turned into three, but Barclays’ Encore! programme – which helps people who have taken a career break to re-enter the workforce – allowed Jo to transition into a dynamic new role, as a Corporate Banking Relationship Director in Technology, Media and Telecoms. She tells us why the programme works.

Innovation & Technology

Recycling Technologies: Making Plastics Digestible
In 2016, Recycling Technologies was part of the first cohort of the Barclays Unreasonable Impact accelerator, which supports entrepreneurs that are providing solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. Two years on it has booked £65m of future sales and is opening a UK factory with capacity for 300 employees. Founder and CEO Adrian Griffiths tells us the story of his company and how it plans to change the world of plastic recycling.

Research, Reports & Publications

How Barclays is Helping to Create the Jobs of Tomorrow
Barclays partnership with Unreasonable Impact has created more than 5,000 new jobs to date.

Diversity & Inclusion

Female Founders Forum: Barclays' Julia Rogan on Why Mentoring Really Matters

Diversity & Inclusion

My Working Day: Making Fintech Ideas a Reality at Barclays Eagle Lab

Diversity & Inclusion

Female Founders Forum: Chef and Entrepreneur Lisa Tse Speaks About the Challenges of Starting Your Own Business
In the same week that the UK Government appointed its first ‘Minister for Loneliness’, we sat down with acclaimed chef and entrepreneur Lisa Tse, who spoke to us about the challenges of isolation and loneliness that often come with the early stages of starting a business.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Barclays & Unreasonable Group | Jobs of Tomorrow, Solutions for the Planet
Unreasonable Impact, created by Barclays and Unreasonable Group, is a programme centered around scaling growth-stage ventures across the globe that are well positioned to create thousands of jobs while solving our toughest societal and environmental challenges.

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

Barclays Accelerator | Gamechangers: Ernit
We joined the Barclays Accelerator programme because we knew we could learn so much from them. There was no point just staying on our start-up island, and dreaming up fancy visions, we needed to get out of our comfort zone and engage with the big players in the market. It was important to us that we had our methods challenged by the bank. That’s how we created the magic.

Sustainable Development Goals

Unreasonable Impact: How the Barclays Partnership Aims to Tackle the World’s Food Crisis
Disrupting food sounds almost ominous. The purists among us likely do not feel there’s much of a need to innovate their favourite steak or to reinvent the way we eat in pubs, restaurants or canteens. But the food industry is a sector in need of a sea change. This has a lot to do with the way food is produced – the question being whether the industry can adapt to meet the needs of a constantly growing global population in a sustainable fashion.

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