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Pro Bono: Foundervine

Pro Bono: Foundervine

Overview

Providing a platform for innovative young people from under-represented communities, Foundervine are at the forefront of changing the face of entrepreneurship.

Foundervine, established in 2018, is a training consultancy which builds opportunities for founders from underrepresented communities. Its goal is to break down barriers to entrepreneurship. Foundervine prepares future leaders for success by providing them with access to networks, high-quality learning opportunities and investment-readiness support. Foundervine is also an advocate for systemic change in entrepreneurship. The Foundervine team has spent a considerable amount of time at No.10 Downing Street advocating for equal access to the skills, tools and resources necessary to thrive as an entrepreneur.

DID YOU KNOW

Less than 1% of venture capital funding goes to black founders globally. Less than 2% goes to women.

The programs established by Foundervine help early and revenue stage founders enhance and grow their investor networks, get their business operations off the ground, and benefit from mentorship and the development of business know-how from leaders in their fields.

Travers Smith is proud to have supported Foundervine since March 2019. We hosted a Start-up 54 event over a weekend in October 2019 where our lawyers supported 40 aspiring tech entrepreneurs build start-ups from scratch over the course of 54 hours.  Since then we have appeared at numerous other such events including as the sole legal mentors for the Lloyds Investment Readiness Accelerator Programme in. 

In July 2022, Foundervine launched their third Barclay's Black Founder Accelerator Programme, with Travers Smith as legal partner. Foundervine and Barclays Eagle Labs offer Black founders an immersive accelerator programme to grow and scale their businesses. Designed to champion Black-led businesses through a series of masterclasses and mentoring, the program will help 50 founders accelerate their startups and gain the support of a network of experts, including our lawyers.

As part of this programme, lawyers from our Corporate teams will be providing one-to-one mentoring to help founders navigate legal complexities and develop their businesses. We will also be delivering a 'Legal Essentials for Entrepreneurs' masterclass to help founders avoid some of the most common legal pitfalls.

Learn more about Travers Smith involvement with Foundervine in this video with Indie Gordon, Head of Programs at Foundervine and Priya Bansal, Pro Bono Associate at Travers Smith.

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