Its Black Business Fund, in collaboration with Enterprise Nation and Be Inclusive Hospitality, will award a total of £250,000 to 25 small black-owned businesses, with at least half of the grants pledged to small businesses outside of London.
Black-owned restaurants with fewer than five locations can apply to the fund with applications opening on 14 October and closing on 25 November. As well as funding to help grow their businesses, restaurants will receive special mentoring from Enterprise Nation.
The fund has been created to give black-owned businesses a chance of success, with research showing that only 5% of small or medium sized businesses are run by people from minority backgrounds in the UK and black and mixed ethnicity groups the least likely to be self-employed.
Research from Be Inclusive Hospitality has found that 43% of black business owners believe that ethnicity has hindered career progression while the Resolution Foundation says that hospitality workers from black/African/Caribbean and black British backgrounds are among the least likely to be in the highest paying occupations across all age groups.
“The launch of this initiative is really timely. The theme for Black History Month this year is Time for Change: Action Not Words’, and this fund, and mentorship will help in a very tangible way to remove some of the barriers that Black business owners continue to face, during an extremely difficult trading period,” says Lorraine Copes, Be Inclusive hospitality founder.
“I am delighted to partner on this initiative for a second time, and I really look forward to the scale of social impact possible this time around.”
Emma Jones MBE, founder of Enterprise Nation, says: “This initiative is so needed right now. Our recent Barometer found food and drinks businesses were amongst the first to be affected by the cost-of-living crisis. Yet some businesses in the industry like those in the Black business community had barely recovered from the impact of the pandemic before the next crisis hit. The financial support is phenomenal and the mentoring is about helping them to focus on the elements of their business that they can control, and develop strategies to manage the elements they cannot.”
Uber Eats first launched the Black Business Fund in 2021 awarding 10 £5,000 grants to restaurants across the country, including The Flygerians at Peckham Palms and Breakhouse Cafe in London.
"The hospitality sector is facing so many challenges right now so when I received a grant it was such a lifeline. We opened in September 2020 in between the two lockdowns, so we had so much to deal with so the cash gave us the breathing space we needed," says Chloe Bailey-Williams, Breakhouse Cafe owner (pictured). "Now we have stripped the menu right back and have started hosting acoustic gigs and book launches. I know there will be challenges ahead but I’m optimistic we can make it work.”
“Small businesses and restaurants are the heart of local communities, and we’re honoured to give so many a platform on Uber Eats,” says Matthew Price, general manager at Uber Eats UK & Ireland.
“Given the barriers that black owners face, we are incredibly proud to expand our support of small black-owned businesses across the country. Through this fund we want to help the next generation of chefs and entrepreneurs thrive.”