Black Founders Programme
Open date: Wednesday 26 April 2023 Close date: Monday 29 May 2023
About
The FutureScope Black Founders Programme is a 16-week accelerator targeted at pre-seed or seed stage, Black-founded companies creating innovative products and services in the digital entertainment industry.
The aim of the programme is to fast track high-growth potential startups from a business and investment perspective, providing the support needed to increase their investment readiness level.
Sony Music UK is a collaboration partner for this programme and will play an active role in supporting business growth & facilitating connections where possible.
Applications must be submitted by 23:59 on Monday 29 May 2023.
Application brief
The aim of the Black Founders Programme is to fast track a startup’s growth from a business and investment perspective.
The participating companies’ leadership team will work with Digital Catapult, industry experts and Sony Music UK to assess requirements and provide tailored support to increase the investment readiness level of each individual business.
Participating companies will also have a chance to benefit from dedicated sessions with Sony Music UK, whilst expanding their network of peers, investors and customers.
Why get involved?
Across the 16-week programme, companies will participate in roughly 20+ hours of support activities that include:
Support for programme participants includes:
Investment readiness support
Coaching from industry experts
Mentoring and guidance from Sony Music Group
Networking and peer-to-peer opportunities
Who should apply?
The programme is inviting applications from UK based pre-seed and seed stage companies creating innovative products and services in the digital entertainment industry.
Applicants must have at least one founder that self-identifies as Black or multiracial with Black heritage.
Additional requirements include:
- Applicants must be looking to raise investment in the next six to nine months
- Applicants must be currently working within the digital entertainment space (for example, music, arts, gaming and advertising)
The programme is aimed at the businesses senior leadership team (e.g. founders, CEO) but support can be made available to the successful applicants more generally upon request.
To be considered, Digital Catapult supports companies using advanced digital technologies including:
- Future networks and advanced digital infrastructure (internet of things including low powered wide area networks,NB-IoT, LIFI etc. and includes sensors, edge devices, wearables etc.)
- Immersive technologies – extended reality (virtual, augmented, mixed reality and haptics)
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning (natural language processing, machine vision, deep learning)
- Distributed ledger technologies (blockchain etc.)