Virgin StartUp

We’re Virgin StartUp, a not-for-profit organisation that exists to help founders start up and thrive.

We know there’s a lot that goes into starting your business, so we’re here to help on all fronts - advice, access to funding, mentoring, training and sometimes just a friendly shoulder to lean on.

We provide straight talk and useful advice to make the entrepreneurial road less bumpy and access to a supportive and dynamic community to help you have some fun along the way.

Currently only one in five start-ups in the UK has a woman founder – we think that’s something that needs to change. In 2019 we became the first startup support organisation to pledge equal funding for men and women with our 50:50 pledge.

Virgin Startup supports founders and future founders as they get their startup ideas off the ground, all the way through to raising investment and scaling up. You can find out more about our support and programmes below:

Start Up Loans - https://www.virginstartup.org/start-up-loans

Virgin StartUp are one of the leading Delivery Partners of the Start Up Loans programme, a Government-backed scheme to help founders get their businesses funded. A Start Up Loan is a personal loan for founders looking to start or grow their businesses. You can borrow between £500 - £25,000 per co-founder and must be at idea stage or trading less than 3 years.

Founders who receive a Start Up Loan enter our Funded Club and get access to a range of support for 12 months, including mentoring, a free advice helpline and webinars. We’ve supported nearly 5,000 founders with Start Up Loans.

StepUp - https://www.virginstartup.org/step-up

StepUp is a free 3-day online programme, designed for London-based founders who want to take their businesses to the next level, typically trading for 6 months or more. The programme includes a series of workshops on topics like branding, marketing, fundraising and networking opportunities to develop founders' skills across branding, sales, funding and investment, to help take their businesses to the next level.

Collective Impact - https://www.virginstartup.org/virgin-startup-collective-impact

Collective Impact is an online accelerator designed for purpose-led startups looking to scale their impact by raising initial investment. The 12 founders from our July 2022 programme have raised more than £2.9 million investment.

Angel Investment Accelerator - https://www.virginstartup.org/virgin-startup-angel-investment-accelerator

Our exclusive new accelerator supercharges founders to investment readiness and allows them to practice their pitch with angel investors along the way.

Virgin StartUp run regular online events, including recent MeetUps featuring experts and leaders including Simon Sinek - https://www.virginstartup.org/news/simon-sinek-power-human-connection-should-be-heart-future-business. Check out the latest one at https://www.virginstartup.org/events.

Find out more about Virgin StartUp here https://www.virginstartup.org