Startup Support in...Nottingham

by Startacus Admin

Nottingham based early-stage startups and entrepreneurs take note - here's the lowdown on key startup support and help available where you are...

Away from the established startup hubs like London, the support for setting up a business isn’t always so clear. It’s not a lack of support, just a quieter ecosystem that takes a little more work to unearth. We want to help with this, by highlighting what some other major cities have to offer to early-stage and growing startups and entrepreneurs...

Now that we’ve had a look around startup support in Leeds, we’re popping down to Nottingham for coffee...

Co-Working space

MinorOak is a host desk based co-working space the longest rolling contract for which is one month. The space provides everything you need so that you can just turn up with your laptop and get to work. Meeting space for 8 is free to members, private rooms for phone and video calls, and spaces for both wide open work and slightly more private work.

Cobden Place offers hot desking and resident desks, and membership includes a discount at Cobden Chambers shops, kitchen facilities, and 3 hours free use of meeting rooms. You can also rent a studio pod, which comes with the same, but with more space and privacy.

Accelerate Places provides co-working space and private offices to startups and scale-ups. It is the most expensive we have seen, at £295/m for a dedicated desk, but it offers unlimited meeting room access, printing, and refreshments, bike storage, discounted parking, café, events and workshops, and more.

Magenta Studios offers open co-working space, which includes hot desking, and private office space. The space is open and light, with meeting rooms, 24-hour access, free parking, and more.

Avenue HQ is another that offers both fixed and hot desking co-working space as well as private office space. Additionally, they can host your events, from meetings to conferences to parties. Unlimited tea and coffee, member socials, discounts for the bar and café, exclusive events, and more.

Finances

For B2B startups, there is match funding from the NBV Grant for New Business. This starts at £1,000 for a project spend of £4k, up to £2.5k for a project spend of of £10k or more. Just note that you must be ready to start trading and have the full cost of the equipment/service you need, as the grant cannot be claimed in advance.

The Foresight Nottingham Fund is looking to invest £100k-£2m into small to medium businesses in the Nottinghamshire region to support growth and business opportunities.

For SMEs looking to improve energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or implement sustainable energy technologies, the University of Nottingham has a grant scheme that will match fund up to £10,000 for projects between £2k and £20k.

The Big House offers a grant of £1-2.5k for businesses in the creative and digital industries to start and grow, and one to subsidise the cost of bringing in talent for temporary projects.

For students, Venture Capital Nottingham is a student society, working in partnership with Campus Capital, to bring access to early stage investment to groundbreaking student enterprises.

Blenheim Chalcot has a base in Nottingham, calling themselves the UK’s leading digital venture builder.

The startup ecosystem and programmes

The Big House offers more than grants. It provides a range of support services, including events, workshops, coaching and mentoring, and business diagnostics.

BioCity is a business incubator, life sciences incubator, accelerator, and hub. With pay-as-you-go lab equipment, space to grow, free events, business programmes, access to funding, and more, BioCity is a good place for biotech.

For disruptive beauty and fashion startups, Laced is the incubator for you, with its vibrant and collaborative network and community.

Tech Nottingham is a tech community that hosts events, including a monthly women in tech event, the next of which is on February 7.

Nottingham Digital hosts a list of upcoming local events, covering topics from blockchain to AI to podcasting.

As always, this is not an exhaustive list, so feel free to let us know at editorial@startacus.net if you think there is a particularly deserving entity in any of these categories.

 

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Published on: 9th January 2019