Refugee Venture Fund

Apply to the Refugee Venture Fund

We back entrepreneurs in the UK who have lived experience of displacement and already have the right to live and work here. Applying has two parts: first a few quick questions, which take about a minute and check whether this fund can help you, then the application itself.

Step 1 of 2

First, a few quick questions

These decide whether this fund can help you at all. They take about a minute. If we are not the right fit, we will say so straight away and point you to people who are, rather than take up more of your time first.

Nothing on this step is saved unless you go on and send an application.

Read our privacy notice (opens in a new tab) to see how we use your information.

Where is your business based?
Do you, or someone who started the business with you, have lived experience of being forced to leave your country?

This includes arriving in the UK in any of these ways, at any point, even as a child or more than 20 years ago:

  • refugee status
  • humanitarian protection
  • being stateless
  • arriving under a resettlement programme or safe route, for example from Ukraine, Syria or Afghanistan
  • coming from Hong Kong on a British National (Overseas) visa
  • being forced to leave your country in another way

If you are still waiting for a decision on an asylum claim, you cannot apply yet. You can apply once you have permission to work.

We ask what kind later, and only if you carry on with the application.

Do you have the right to live and work in the UK, and to be self-employed as the director of your own company?

Answer for yourself. If the entrepreneur with lived experience of displacement is someone else on your team, they need this right too. Refugee status, humanitarian protection, permission to stay as a stateless person, a resettlement programme or a British National (Overseas) visa usually gives it. A pending asylum claim usually does not. You tell us this yourself: we do not ask for documents now, and we check it before we invest.

How far along is your business?

Pick the one closest to where you are today.

We invest by buying a small share of your company. We are not a loan and not a grant. Is that what you are looking for?

There is no repayment and no interest. In exchange we own part of the company, so we only do well if you do.

How big are you trying to build your business?

There is no wrong answer. It decides whether this particular kind of money suits you.

Is your business's core product, or the main way it makes money, in any of these industries?

Choose all that apply. Weapons or arms is the only answer that ends an application here. If your business is in one of the others, carry on: a person will look at it. If you are making one of these industries cleaner or safer, tell us about it in your application.