Latest news with #BlackBritishInitiative
Metro
30-06-2025
- Business
- Metro
Meet the Black entrepreneurs shaping UK's future - Metro partners with BBI
Metro is joining forces with the Black British Initiative (BBI) to boost representation for underprivileged Black entrepreneurs across the UK through a 12-month content partnership. 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
Metro
26-06-2025
- Business
- Metro
Meet the CEO on a mission to help Black businesses thrive in the UK
London-Born entrepreneur Darren Miller is the CEO and founder of Black British Initiative (BBI), a charitable organisation set up in 2023 with the goal of eradicating racial injustice. At the heart of BBI is MBA 30, an initiative that provides business training for Black entrepreneurs. Darren set up his first business aged 20 before moving into property development and luxury Italian interiors, subsequently working with the Saatchi Gallery and Design Museum among others. Here, he talks about his childhood in Nunhead, how he became an entrepreneur and his aim to elevate Black business through executive education. My parents came to the UK at the tail-end of the Windrush generation. I grew up in Nunhead, south-east London, in a close-knit Jamaican community. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video My school was awful. Most of the students were Afro-Caribbean and 90% of the teachers were white. Expectations were very low. Most boys left at 16 and went off to get a job – not a career – and only one or two got even one A-level. University wasn't mentioned. When I said I wanted to be a pilot, the teachers laughed. 'Miller, think about being a painter and decorator. Electrician if you're lucky.' I didn't even know the word entrepreneur back then. But in my first job at United Technologies, I started to get recognised and promoted. My manager said to me one day, 'Darren, you are able to just pick up the ball and run with it.' It was the first time I'd thought I might be able to run my own business. A chance conversation in a Chinese takeaway gave me the idea and I decided to pursue it. I was 20, my brother was 18. I was young and impetuous and thought I could conquer the world. To my mum's horror, I dragged my brother out of his safe job at NatWest, and we started our first business. It wasn't sexy, it was linen hire, providing napkins and tablecloths to restaurants: a tough industry, but we had a lucky break and got established. We ran it for four or five years then sold it for a great profit. We were in a position to really scale the business and went to one of the big four high-street banks to borrow some money, but got turned down. We thought we had a rock-solid case but the bank wouldn't back it. Difficulty getting funding, even when I had a solid business proposition, has been a constant. I believe race is a factor. There are systemic structural and institutional barriers. The people I was speaking to often had benefitted from a private education and had amazing networks. They knew about investment and had been to business school and would look at my balance sheet and see things even I didn't know. That put me at a massive disadvantage. I realised that executive education is important. We have found a way to democratise MBAs. An MBA is super-powerful, but can cost up to £100k, and can take a year or more full-time. The only mini MBA solely focused on Black entrepreneurs, it is accredited by SOAS University of London and costs just £3,250. We cherry-picked the nine most important modules and now run them for nine days over the course of a month. What makes ours even more exceptional is that we bring in at least two industry contributors per day – from the Bank Of England, Vodafone, Sky, Condé Nast, Mastercard and JP Morgan among others. That wealth disparity doesn't exist. Runnymede Trust statistics show Black and African households have nine times less wealth than white British ones, yet their businesses could contribute up to £75billion to the country's GDP. By failing to support Black entrepreneurs, we are overlooking financial growth that the country needs. If you can see someone like you, it acts as a beacon. It's like a light shining on the pathway – when you have moments when you want to stop, it helps you think, 'You know what? If they did it, I can do it too.' For us, a dynamic, small but exciting charity, this partnership is transformative. It shows that even though we live in a time whenDEI [diversity, equity, inclusion] and social equality don't get the limelight they deserve, there are organisations out there who understand the importance of driving social mobility and what it means for the UK at large. Metro is an exemplar and my hope is others follow its lead. To educate 5,000 entrepreneurs by 2030. Perfectly aligning with this are our exciting MBA 30 Emerging Entrepreneur Awards 2025. View More » Working with Metro, these awards will give cash-strapped entrepreneurs marketing opportunities that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive, as well as potential access to up to £1.5million of funding. Change has to come. Metro is joining forces with the Black British Initiative (BBI) to boost representation for underprivileged Black entrepreneurs across the UK through a 12-month content partnership. Starting with an interview with CEO and founder Darren Miller, Metro, the UK news brand with the most diverse audience, will highlight the excellence of Black businessmen and women through a series of creative storytelling. Follow along by bookmarking this link and return every month to meet a new entrepreneur. Want to join the next MBA30 cohort - and have a chance to enter the MBA30 Emerging Entrepreneur Awards? 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