Bloom Money selected for government-backed tech diversity incubator
Social money lending platform Bloom Money is among 35 tech start-ups selected to join Tech Nation’s second Libra programme to combat racial inequality in UK tech.
The new companies joining Libra collectively employ more than 170 people and have raised more than £10m in venture capital investment.
A majority (63 per cent) of companies joining this year’s Libra programme have at least one female founder, and 40 per cent hail from outside of London. Of the whole cohort, 25.7 per cent are from the finance sector.
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It is the second iteration of the Libra programme for ethnically underrepresented tech founders in the UK. The companies selected are working to transform multiple sectors, from finance, healthcare and clean technology to education and HR.
Bloom Money, which was founded Nina Mohanty, creates technology to help diverse communities save money for the future. It offers what it calls “circles” – communities in which users can borrow, save or send out cash.
“We are so excited to join a cohort of brilliant, innovative founders on the Libra programme,” Mohanty said. “One of the joys of Bloom Money is that we are serving a diverse group of people who are typically overlooked and underserved. It feels particularly heartwarming to now join a group of equally diverse (and historically overlooked) founders solving challenging, interesting problems.”
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On top of increased regional diversity this year, 63 per cent of the companies have female founders, and collectively the companies operate in more than 17 different countries, including the UK.
Libre is a six-month government-backed programme. By supporting ethnically underrepresented tech leaders based in the UK (who are growing and scaling despite VC funding challenges), Libra aims to strengthen the UK’s position as one of the best places in the world to start and grow a business, regardless of background.
While the inaugural Libra programme focused on improving the black founder experience, Libra 2.0 will focus on companies with at least one ethnic minority founder with lived experience of little or no access to capital, networking and commercial opportunities, to help them access equal opportunities and accelerate their scaling journey.
The first Libra programme saw two black-founded start-up companies (edtech company Framework and HRtech company Flair) raise seed funding within their first few months of joining the programme, and six companies (Boxx, Compare Ethics, Eccobell, Framework, Ruka and Owni) awarded the Black Fund Grant by Google for start-ups.
The scheme is run in by tech growth platform Tech Nation in partnership with law firm Cooley.
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