This is a declaration by Londoners: like-minded entrepreneurs, organisations & companies with a shared vision for London - as a city where refugees thrive through the power of their own ideas.

Building Momentum

Over the last 4 years, we have increasingly recognised refugee entrepreneurs as significant contributors to London's business community:

Together, we are sponsoring and supporting business support programmes for refugee entrepreneurs, providing in-kind support to the community and leveraging our expertise to increase the visibility of their contributions to our local communities.

The Impact of Covid-19

The Covid-19 crisis has threatened to derail much of this momentum by exacerbating pre-existing inequalities:

If we do not act now and strengthen support for refugee entrepreneurs, their businesses may never recover and the next generation of refugee entrepreneurs could be lost. This would be a huge missed opportunity for the entrepreneurs to improve their lives, and for the London communities their businesses would have served.

Our Commitment: Building Back Better

This is why we commit to make the economic recovery a springboard to close the gap. As we rebuild London’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, we will make it more inclusive of refugee founders and give them a leading role in determining their own futures.

With this declaration, we make a commitment to provide essential support to 50% of the 1000 refugees with entrepreneurial potential living in Greater London by 2025 (our current audits suggest that in 2020 only 10% of refugee entrepreneurs in London benefit from business support). Concretely, we commit to: