Black Founders Programme in Creative Industries

The Black Founders Programme from Digital Catapult is a 13-week accelerator targeted at pre-seed or seed stage, Black founded companies creating innovative products and services in the creative 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 and Sony Music Publishing UK are collaboration partners for this programme and will play an active role in supporting business growth & facilitating connections where possible.

The Black Founders Programme aims to accelerate business growth and boost market presence of deep tech startups in the creative industries. Programme participants will access the following benefits:

• Business and investment health scans
• Masterclasses, mentoring and coaching from industry experts
• Potential for funding opportunities
• Opportunities to engage with Sony Music UK & Sony Music Publishing UK

To offset any costs to a business by participating within the programme, each startup will receive an equal share of a £30,000 pot as a financial contribution towards completing the programme. Applying to and participating in the programme is free.

Who can apply?

In order to be eligible for the programme, applicants must meet the following criteria:

• UK based pre-seed and seed stage companies in the creative deep tech sector
• Applicants looking to raise investment in the next 12 months
• Applicants must have at least one founder that self-identifies as Black or multiracial with Black heritage
• Are currently working within the creative space (for example music, arts, gaming and advertising)
• Applicants must be eligible to receive £20,000 in State Assistance (De Minimis Aid)

Applications from university teams are welcomed if they meet the eligibility criteria and are willing to incorporate as a company if accepted on the programme. You have to be registered with Companies House. Digital Catapult will consider bidders that hold any legal form of business (e.g. ltd company, sole trader, consortium).

Eligible technologies

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.)
• Quantum

Details and support

The majority of the programme will be delivered remotely via online calls and sessions. Digital Catapult expect to organise a small number of in-person events at Digital Catapult or Sony Music UK’s London offices over the 13-week period.

Digital Catapult are holding informal Q&A sessions on Friday mornings during the application window. Please select a 15 minute slot here to speak to one of the Digital Catapult team about your application. These sessions will not have an impact on the judging of your application.