Press contacts

Caitlin Marsh, Communications Manager,
caitlin.marsh@virgin.com

Kate Cashmore, Head of News,
kate.cashmore@virgin.com

Ffion White, Communications Officer,
ffion.white@virgin.com

Virgin StartUp is the not-for-profit home of entrepreneurship at the Virgin Group. Founded in 2013 by Sir Richard Branson, Virgin StartUp helps early-stage founders start and grow the businesses that they’re passionate about by providing founders with business advice, access to funding, mentoring, training and more, including scale-up and investment readiness programmes.  

As a national Business Support Partner of the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans Scheme, Virgin StartUp provides access to funding between £500 - £25,000 to help founders start or scale early-stage businesses in the UK. Since launching in late 2013, Virgin StartUp has distributed more than£100million to 7,000 early-stage founders around the country.    

Virgin StartUp exists to make entrepreneurship possible for everyone. By combining founder-first funding, inclusive support, and accelerators for under-represented founders, Virgin StartUp is levelling the playing field and helping more people start up and thrive. Its 50/50 pledge, which came into effect in 2019, commits to equally funding women and men founders through the Start Up Loan programme. 

Virgin StartUp is also home to a community of thousands of founders, helping to provide the support and opportunities they need to build better business together. The Virgin StartUp Community is an online platform open to any aspiring or early-stage business founder, offering a dedicated space for founders to connect, share, learn and grow with like-minded entrepreneurs and industry experts.  Founders can access 1:1 mentoring and 1:1 advisory calls, as well as online learning, workshops and face-to-face events to inspire and support them in their business venture.