Insights from the Amplify Venture Impact Evaluation on supporting inclusive entrepreneurship

September 25th 2025

by Julie Sané-Pezet
Founder at Lume Impact

Is targeting the most underprivileged the best way to drive systemic change?

Intuitively, we want to say ‘yes’. Because it feels “right” to give scholarships to people who can’t afford higher education or to offer top-tier entrepreneurship programmes to founders who’d never access them otherwise.

We’ve been taught that “good” people “give back”. Doing so brings social praise, purpose, even something to add to your CV.

But what happens after the scholarship ends? When the entrepreneurship programme is over?

Giving someone a golden ticket doesn’t guarantee a golden outcome. Not everyone is Charlie Bucket and there are not that many Willy Wonkas available to bet their entire fortune and business on someone who just entered the chat. As rough as it sounds, opportunities have expiry dates. And after that? Many return to the same environment, with the same barriers.

Take an entrepreneurship programme. Whether short-term support leads to lasting change depends on many ifs. If the connections stick. If they can prove their concept quickly and cheaply. If life doesn’t come in the way; because childcare, transport, or even a conference ticket can be out of reach.

Impact isn’t just about access. It’s about what happens after the door opens.

As part of the Amplify Venture Impact Evaluation, I’ve had the joy to work with an incredible team of academics and inclusive entrepreneurship champions to support a brilliant consortium dedicated to minority entrepreneurs’s growth.

With UKSPF’s backing, the Amplify Venture (AV) consortium supported 135 businesses led by diverse founders over the course of two years. (Spoiler alert: the programme got funding to keep going! 🎉)

The evaluation - and the many conversations we’ve had with the AV team, the founders and the GLA - highlighted the tension between organisations’ will to reach out to the most isolated founders and the need to meet funders’ success metrics. Some key insights:

“Underrepresented” is different from “underserved”. Being transparent about the public you intend to serve and how this fits into your wider impact goals is key to building trust and accountability.
There is still too big of a disconnect between funders expectations and entrepreneurial realities. Early collaboration between partners and better feedback processes can help adjust funding requirements by incorporating insights from the field.
Tailored support will always beat one-size-fits-all - especially when looking at founders from different backgrounds and at different stages. Coming back to the first point, different audiences will have different challenges. Underrepresentation means you might have the knowledge and some support system but still need better access. Underserved founders, however, will likely need help bridging knowledge gaps.

What can we take away from these findings beyond the recommendations we formulated?

Probably that impact is not straightforward. In complex settings with a plurality of stakeholders, systemic change means playing with different timelines and different strengths. The AV project clearly shows that short to medium term minority founders with existing access to entrepreneurial spaces (understand access to higher education, good socio-economic background etc) can grow faster and go further with the adequate support. They are then more likely to create job opportunities for their communities and support other people’s access to entrepreneurial spaces.

This doesn’t mean that we should stop catering to underserved founders' needs. Rather than when looking at underserved communities we should keep in mind their realities and design programmes that will provide adequate support, likely for a longer period of time.

Together these two audiences are two sides of the same coin. Betting on the fastest runners while investing in the slowest ones is, in essence, “preparing the room”.

To learn more about championing inclusive entrepreneurship and access all our findings, download the policy brief below.

… And if you are interested and getting support in creating your impact strategy or assessing your overall impact, get in touch or book a call with me.