UK Shared Prosperity Fund - supporting local business

Barts Life Sciences, a partnership between Barts Health NHS Trust and Queen Mary University of London have been awarded a total of £800,000 to support enterprises across London, with a focus on life sciences for the NHS.  

Its key initiative is an SME Support Service, helping SMEs to better-navigate the NHS through training workshops and bespoke entrepreneurial support. From 2025, the project will be supporting companies that align with priority areas of the NHS.  

The BIG South London Innovation programme builds and expands an existing partnership of Higher Education institutions and local boroughs committed to building the innovation ecosystem of South London. The programme addresses key sub-regional weaknesses in productivity and innovation via a pathway of interventions designed to engage organisations and communities who have not previously worked with the knowledge base. The grant of £1,887,564.64 focusses on priority growth sectors with activity supporting local enterprises to utilise the assets of the local knowledge base to develop innovative approaches to developing new products, services, and processes. 

Awarded £1,177,054.85 in funding, Central Research Laboratory (CRL) is a pan-London programme stimulating product-based innovation across London, delivered by Central Research Laboratory Hayes Ltd. The programme aims to prepare future global hardware enterprises through entrepreneurial skills, sustainable product development masterclasses and connections to industry, investors and suppliers.    

Aiming to support 206 SMEs on their innovation journeys, CRL’s proven model creates an inclusive innovation ecosystem, advancing net-zero solutions and contributing to the Mayor’s vision for a stronger, greener and more equitable London. 

With a grant of £1,231,857.13, Open London, led by Newable Trade Ltd, unites large corporates, local authorities, public organisations, London residents and London SMEs to solve the capital’s critical socioeconomic, health and environmental challenges.  

Aiming to improve living standards, the initiative supports 115 London SMEs and social enterprises to develop open innovation, collaboration skills and idea commercialisation through curated challenges and a demand-led Accelerator and one-to-one support. Receiving grants to develop ideas, 39 SMEs will adopt new or improved products, with 20 introducing their services to market to benefit Londoners.

Delivered by London Legacy Development Corporation, and receiving £1,471,272.49, SHIFT: Future Industries Demonstrator is a mission-led scale-up solution. It addresses real, local citizens challenges, aligning them with market solutions that accelerate our collective transition to Net Zero and fairer economies. 

Utilising London’s real-world testbed (SHIFT), the project offers a delivery map for SME-led products and services, combining market-demand clarity and supply at a sub-regional level. Leveraging the diverse ecosystem of 400+ organisations based around Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, it fosters robust, intersectional partnerships championing specialist inclusive innovations that are central to SHIFT's mission.

Find out more, here.

The GoodTech Accelerator, led by Catch 22, has been awarded £889,325.31 to empower London’s most innovative social impact entrepreneurs. Initially focused on financial modelling, pitch practice, and investment readiness, the programme has evolved into a holistic system tailored to each founder’s journey. Ventures supported include fintech, health tech, and initiatives for the neurodivergent community, driving meaningful social change. 

Newable Trade Ltd’s Inclusive Supply Chain project has been awarded £1,161,570.65 to enhance London’s social and economic cohesion. The project will provide 384 SMEs with an intensive, tailored, supply-readiness programme, focusing on underrepresented entrepreneurs (50% female, 40% ethnic-minority, 5% disabled).  

It intends to enhance awareness and participation of supply chains’ commercial opportunities. Through interactive workshops and buyer-side engagement, it will offer bespoke business support, resulting in SMEs winning new contracts, promoting business growth, increased economic activity and job creation.

With a grant of £1,312,356.56, Minority Business Matters, led by Heart of the City, addresses challenges faced by London's ethnically diverse SME-owners and freelancers in accessing business opportunities. The programme combines the supply chain expertise of MSDUK, the leading ethnic minority advocacy body in the UK, with Heart of the City’s longstanding responsible business expertise.  

It supports ethnic minority businesses to become supplier-ready by developing the capability to access corporate procurement opportunities, and to embed social value into their operations and services to drive inclusive growth.

The Selby Ventures Community Enterprise Project by The Selby Trust has received £857,838.00. The project is hosted at the Selby Centre - a community learning, business, and community centre in an area of high unemployment and limited opportunity – with an aim to drive community-led change through local organisations, with 32 onsite diversity-led SME organisations.  

Project themes include bridging the Digital Divide and Growing the Social Economy.

Ealing Council leads a project with Harrow and Hillingdon councils, with £500,869.92 of funding to deliver tailored business support with 300 SMEs from April 2023 to 31st March 2025.

The project will particularly support Black, Asian and minority ethnic, and other SMEs hit hardest by the pandemic in key sectors, including Wholesale, Retail & Motor Trade, Manufacturing, Health & Social Care, Creative sectors, Professional & Scientific, Information & Communications and Construction sectors. It facilitates introductions to Tier 1 suppliers, Public Sector Anchor Institutes and other buyers, enhancing visibility of SMEs to help secure market opportunities.

The City of Westminster’s Supplier Readiness Programme has received £882,067.94 to equip local, diverse-led, and mission-led SMEs and VCSEs with the skills, knowledge and confidence to successfully navigate the procurement landscape.  

Through the provision of a comprehensive package of support, including specialist workshops, mentoring opportunities, and curated ‘Meet the Buyer’ events, the programme aims to foster an inclusive procurement environment and provide businesses with opportunities to thrive in a competitive market.  

Leveraging support from the council’s Responsible Procurement, Buying, and Social Value teams, the programme also provides tailored guidance to identify suitable tender opportunities for SMEs, supporting their journey in become supplier ready. 

The LONDON E-Business Support Programme, led by Enfield Enterprise, received £3,373,001.00 to deliver a comprehensive digital skills programme for London’s SMEs. It aims to drive businesses’ growth, resilience and sustainability, in particular responding to the pandemic’s impact, through effectively integrating technologies into daily business practice.  

Operating through Business for London, a consortium of established business support organisations, the programme offers diagnostics, one-to-one support and access to learning resources. With a focus on maximising the participation of female-owned, ethnic minority-owned and disabled-owned businesses. 

eceiving £1,729,504.48, this project led by London Borough of Islington supports emerging social businesses entrepreneurs in public health and life sciences, to boost opportunities for underserved communities.  

MedCity, in collaboration with a consortium of seven London boroughs (Camden, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Lambeth, Southwark, and Tower Hamlets) is hosting London’s Innovation Districts to grow a community-driven social economy, actively addressing entrenched health and wealth inequalities. 

Targeted business support includes startup support, acceleration and grant-giving. The programme connects entrepreneurs with researchers, businesses and commissioners to ensure lasting impact in this emerging ecosystem. 

Power Up is Big Issue Invests accelerator programme for early-stage social enterprises. It has received £1,323,994.37 to offer four months of intensive non-financial assistance. This includes mentoring and business support to training workshops and networking opportunities. It also offers possible access to grant funding.  

Tailored for London’s social enterprises, Power Up helps them create and retain jobs and expand or grow their services. It will help businesses to address environmental and social issues and provides services to underrepresented communities. 

The School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) received £950,083 to deliver the Shifting London programme up to 31st March 2025. London based social entrepreneurs were supported through a social enterprise festival, workshops; 1:1 business coaching and a 12-month intensive learning programme, providing £389,000 in grants.  

The programme successfully supported a diverse community of social entrepreneurs to explore and grow opportunities within the local, social economy through creating and safeguarding jobs, reaching new markets and developing new products and services. Building on this success, SSE has secured a further £154,189 to support 20 more enterprises through a learning programme aimed at boosting trading and social impact, continuing through to March 2026.

With a grant of £950,000 the Property Advice Service by London Business Partnership Ltd offers a one-stop shop for and potential entrepreneurs as well as existing London SME’s to help navigate challenging commercial property issues relating to business rates, rate reliefs, leases, leases negotiation and other issues associated with being a commercial tenant. 

The service offers free support and advice through online masterclasses, one-to-one sessions with property specialists and expert guidance covering issues tailored to sector-specific issues and business and property types.

Greater London Authority’s Better Futures project received £2,258,796.00. It is a collaboration of London’s leading private and public sector organisations, addressing challenges SMEs face in their pathway to sustainability and net-zero. 

It provides direct business support to cleantech SMEs to help bring low carbon solutions to market, deliver business growth and job creation, promote diversity in the low carbon sector and help reduce London’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

It assists non-climate tech to adopt low carbon business models and technologies to accelerate their emissions reductions. The project also uniquely addresses innovation and decarbonisation by scaling built environment, technical and decarbonisation support.

Project theme also includes innovation. 

This project closed on 31st March 2025.

The Low Carbon Transition Programme has received £1,807,340 to provide an accelerator programme for London-based SME fashion businesses to measure their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in line with best practice and develop a decarbonisation roadmap up to 2030 which is tailored to their business. The programme embeds the consideration of circular economy principles throughout and explores possible opportunities for businesses to consider embedding circularity and circular economy business models into their operations. 

The Startup Discovery School Ltd’s Just Transition Project is a business support initiative that ensures London’s business ecosystem moves towards an equitable and inclusive net zero economy. 

The project has received £1,806,376.09 to help incubate new business solutions with diverse startups to accelerate growth in the net zero and circular economy. It also supports scaling up climate tech solutions for diverse entrepreneurs, tackling energy efficiency and retrofitting, and cost of living issues which disproportionately affect underserved communities.

Receiving £1,446,419.85 through UKSPF, the London Waste and Recycling Board’s ReLondon’s project builds on a previous ERDF-funded initiative. It is designed to create jobs & GVA by supporting both everyday SMEs to transition to circular business models, and to accelerate growth of circular economy SMEs. 

Delivered collaboratively with boroughs, the programme equips SMEs with skills, resources, and connections to help reduce waste and consumption-based emissions while generating commercial and operational benefits. It emphasises business models tackling social issues, structural inequalities and prioritising minority-owned SMEs and those in sectors disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

Find out more, here.
 

Delivered by London Borough of Camden’s Camden Climate Alliance, this project received £640,789.00 to deliver a high-quality energy efficiency programme benefiting125 businesses across Camden and Brent. The SMEs will address cost-of-living, energy and climate issues, delivering a minimum 10% reduction in energy consumption with realistic plans to further decarbonise and achieve net-zero. 

Utilising existing business networks, it offers 1-to-1 and peer-to-peer support, energy audits and recommendations and management reports, upskill and empowerment training for underrepresented businesses. 

The project lead to a pipeline of retrofit projects accessing other capital funding to dramatically accelerate decarbonisation of London’s buildings.

This project closed on 31st March 2025

The Southwark Climate Collective delivered by Better Bankside supports Southwark businesses with capacity building, training and expert consultancy support to find scalable solutions for business decarbonisation. The project received £653,775.22 between 2022-2025, with a further grant of £252,000 for 2025-26 which will enable a continuation of the project to reach 140 Southwark SMEs, 25% of which will be specifically targeted towards BME and women led business.  

The project will build on the success of previous Southwark Climate Collective delivery, with an innovative and distinct focus on four low-carbon programme streams: energy, waste, freight and supply chains, as well as stimulating local green economy. 

Amplify Venture received £1,748,608.74 to support 150 businesses run by Black & minority ethnic founders, women, and those from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. It will create 59 jobs through an ‘always on’ central community providing access to content, networks, customers, coaching, events & post-programme support.  

The project also provides cohort-based activity, with thematic modules, a bootcamp and accelerators targeting Fast Moving Consumer Goods businesses and those aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The project is delivered by Capital Enterprise and female & Black-led organisations OneTech, Foundervine & StartUp Discovery School. 

The DigitalHealth.London project delivered by Guy’s & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust received £1,576,694.04 to deliver high-value jobs and economic growth. The programme supports businesses in developing innovative products and services, enhancing their ability to bring these innovations to the market successfully. In addition, it brings together high-potential innovative companies, senior industry, and health and social care stakeholders, in collaboration with local healthcare systems, through networking events. Finally, the programme explores opportunities for digital transformation to tackle local health care system challenges through bespoke events to bridge the gap between the problem and the solution. 

Virgin Start Up Limited received £818,152.44 to provide funding for its Empower 100 project. It supports diverse founders with growth potential to maximise their chances of scaling and financing their businesses successfully. The 7-week accelerator includes training modules, networking, mentoring and peer-to-peer learning. 

Empower 100 supported 100 diverse founders from 2023-2025 and will support a further 65 diverse founders in 2025-2026 through development paths, building resilience, confidence, and capabilities to ensure financial sustainability in a challenging economic context. It aims to address systemic inequalities and biases that London’s female, ethnic minority, and disabled entrepreneurs face. 

Foundervine CIC’s Ascend Investment Readiness Programme, provided with £748,074.48, supports early-stage, diverse-led startups in London to access finance and thrive in the competitive business environment. The 3-month investment readiness programme will equip SMEs with knowledge, resources, and networks required to navigate the fundraising process and create strong business plans. 

Programme offers ‘always-on’ funding and business development advice, mentorship, relationship brokerage, and peer support. Plus, its 6-months post-programme support will facilitate access to investor networks, pitching opportunities and co-working space. 

Find out more, here.
 

Film London’s Game Changer programme, funded with £954,552.92, supports diverse founders and SMEs in the video games sector become investment ready. Game Changer delivers workshops to boost commercial acumen and concurrently provide mentorship to upgrade business plans. It will culminate in events providing direct investor access.   

Recognising the under-representation of diverse founders within one of the UKs fastest growing sectors, which attracts significant investor interest, Game Changer aims to bridge this gap between financing and business support. 

The Investment Ready Programme supports London-based, diverse founders in their fundraising efforts by providing the tools, coaching, and expertise needed to optimise funding rounds with minimal disruption to their business. Through the programme, founders gain access to curated workshops, fundraising best-practice templates, tailored investor engagement, and up to 10 hours of one-on-one coaching with experienced fundraising experts. To date, programme alumni have raised £10.7m in capital.  

Funding London received a total of £1,479,467 of funding to support diverse entrepreneurs in their fundraising journey.