SPACE EXPLORATION
ALLIA FUTURE BUSINESS CENTRE
Allia Future Business Centre on King’s Hedges Road is focused on supporting small businesses that create solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges. The purpose- built centre provides flexible workspace, private offices and co-working, plus event and meeting rooms at affordable rates, as well as offering specialist venture support programmes for early- stage start-ups to help them to grow and scale. “We know that by supporting these businesses they can do their work better, more effectively, and create more jobs as they grow,” explains Sally Bain from the Allia team. “Also, being part of our centre plugs them into a community of like-minded companies who can become customers, partners, mentors, investors and friends.” The centre opened its doors in 2013: a bright, colourful space with an open central atrium encircled by three floors of offices and workshops that boasts great eco credentials, with features such as solar panels and rainwater collection (that flushes the loos!). But the sustainability philosophy extends far beyond the building’s design. From day one, the centre has been a hub of the city’s cleantech community, with an active cluster of businesses focused on renewable energy and sustainable solutions. “We’re happy to be the home for social innovation and tech for good,” says Sally. “If you pay us a visit, you’ll find a friendly, entrepreneurial vibe from our community of tenants, who are focused on everything from agritech and assistive technology to fostering and wellbeing.” “Cambridge has one of the strongest entrepreneurial ecosystems in the world,” she continues. “It works because there is a fantastic mix of people with ideas, plus networks, support and spaces to enable them to flourish. We see our space as key in this support infrastructure,
to enable and help future-focused businesses to thrive.” Although the centre opened six years ago, Allia, the parent company, has been around for more than 20 years, having started life in Cambridge in 1999. Back then, its focus was mostly social finance, with projects that stretched the length and breadth of the UK, including working with the Scottish government for housing association funding so that they could develop more social housing, and enterprise programmes in the North East helping long-term unemployed people into work. Since its launch, Allia has supported 2,099 ventures, charities and small businesses, with the Future Business Centre supporting 790 tenants and ventures since it opened. Through these businesses growing, plus the enterprise projects the team has worked on, over 4,640 jobs have been created, and the finance that they have issued has raised over £333 million so that these businesses can develop and deliver more impact for others. And as for the future of the Future Business Centre? “We want to do more of what we have been doing!” enthuses Sally. “Supporting these brilliant and innovative small businesses so that they can make greater positive impact – for people, for communities, and for the planet. We have plans to expand into other cities (we already have a Future Business Centre in East London and another in Peterborough), so that we can continue to provide our combination of strategic support and practical business advice to even more start-ups in different regions. “We’re passionate about protecting the future,” she adds. “We can’t solve all the world’s problems ourselves, but by supporting others who are tackling the most urgent environmental and social challenges, we can help to make this change happen. And that’s got to be good news for everyone.” futurebusinesscentre.co.uk
If you pay us a visit, you’ll find a friendly, entrepreneurial vibe from our community of tenants"
ISSUE 04 38
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