Meet the Black entrepreneurs shaping UK's future - Metro partners with BBI
The UK newsbrand with the most diverse audience will highlight the excellence of Black businessmen and women through a series of creative storytelling – starting with an interview with CEO and founder Darren Miller and a profile piece on Isabelle Pennington-Edmead, a fashion designer who started her own successful slow-fashion brand.
The series will continue with profiles on 11 more stand-out entrepreneurs who have fascinating stories to share about their journey from startup to entrepreneurial excellence.
Next, we will hear from personal trainer, Patrick Hutchinson, and gallery owner Aki Abiola.
Bookmark the link to the tag page to follow along each month.
For those unfamiliar with BBI, the organisation was founded in 2023 and at its heart is MBA30, an initiative that provides business training for Black entrepreneurs.
The goal is to help address the cultural and race-based barriers experienced by aspiring Black businesspeople and the disparity of wealth in the UK.
Between 2009-2019, just 0.24% of UK venture capital investment went to Black entrepreneurs, highlighting the systematic hurdles Black businesses face when securing financing.
What's more, statistics from the Runnymede Trust show that Black households have on average nine times less wealth than white households.
BBI CEO and founder Darren Miller, himself a successful entrepreneur, firmly believes executive education can help close this gap.
One of his biggest challenges when starting out with his first business was pitching for investment without having the specialist knowledge to prepare him for the sort of technical financial scouring that would have applied to his business models. As a result, he tells Metro, securing funding was hard and he was often turned down for businesses he deemed 'rock solid'.
'They could see things I couldn't, and it put me at a major disadvantage,' Darren explains.
Working with Metro, BBI now hopes to train up 3,000 entrepreneurs by 2030, playing a key role in unlocking the £75 billion economic growth opportunity that could come from a boost to Black-owned business. More Trending
Darren says: 'Black and ethnic entrepreneurs could add up to £75bn to the UK's GDP, that is a huge 'win-win' and our mission is to help realise that potential.'
He adds: 'The leadership and vision shown by the Metro is exemplary. Like BBI, they realise in order for the UK to be at its very best, every community must make a full contribution.
Metro Editor-in-Chief, Deborah Arthurs says: 'Partnering with BBI aligns with our mission to reflect the diversity of the UK, and indeed our readership, to champion entrepreneurial ambition that too often goes unsupported.
'Darren's story is a powerful reminder of how much potential exists when talent meets opportunity — and why visibility, investment and education are key to unlocking more talent and a more inclusive and prosperous economy.'
MORE: I didn't know the word entrepreneur growing up — now I help Black-owned businesses thrive
MORE: I built a fashion business from the ground up — you don't need entrepreneur family to succeed
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Customers benefit from: – Award winning service from the UK's leading mortgage broker – Expert advisors on hand 7 days a week – Access to 1000s of mortgage deals from across the market Unlike many mortgage brokers, L&C won't charge you a fee for their advice. Find out how much you could borrow online Mortgage service provided by London & Country Mortgages (L&C), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (registered number: 143002). The FCA does not regulate most Buy to Let mortgages. Your home or property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. We're Nick (25) and Ant (26), a married couple and content creators. We also run the Old Gays New Gays podcast, featuring two generations of LGBTQ+ couples. We share our life with our audience of more than 4,500,000. Our journey began with documenting our long-distance relationship between Canada and the UK. Since then, we've developed a love of renovating homes. 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It was important to us that our monthly mortgage payments were manageable in the long term. Our mortgage is around £3,200 per month, and our other costs, such as insurance, heating, water, electricity, internet, and smaller household subscriptions like security systems, make up the remaining £500 to £800. We try to keep a close eye on everything, and we've found that being proactive with utilities and home maintenance helps keep costs from creeping up. We both started working at a young age, so we had about 10 years of savings each under our belts. Over time, we've also invested in ISAs and stocks, making sure our savings were growing rather than just sitting idle. In addition to that, we originally got on the property ladder in 2020 in Canada. Our first home wasn't in quite the right neighbourhood for us, so we sold it just four months later. Not long after, we bought another home, which we really loved. But then we decided to move back to the UK, and sold that home too. 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After such a big renovation, we're enjoying the calm. That said, it's always tempting to tinker! There is potential to extend one day. Fortunately, we haven't encountered any major issues since renovating. But during the process? Plenty. It turned into a full-scale renovation. Damp, rotten floors, cracked walls, and blocked drains were just a few of the issues we had to overcome. Nearly every surface needed to be replaced or repaired. One of the biggest challenges, though, was hiring the right people. Finding the right tradespeople can completely determine how smoothly your renovation goes. For anyone self-employed, especially those who run their own company, it's worth exploring whether you can use your company's pre-tax profits to apply for a mortgage. It made a big difference in our borrowing ability. More broadly, don't rush. If something breaks, there's almost always a solution, and you learn so much along the way. 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