Women in Business in partnership with Raise Ventures has announced the launch of ‘Tech Spark NI’, a new start up business programme for up to 20 women living in Northern Ireland with an early stage, innovative tech business or tech idea.

The 12-week programme, powered by Eagle Labs and funded by the UK Government’s Digital Growth Grant, will enable the women to evaluate and progress their ideas and develop their professional and commercial skills in order to grow and scale their business.

Part of the three-month programme will also include advice and guidance on how the entrepreneurs can build their local network within the Northern Ireland business ecosystem, enabling them to progress to next steps after the conclusion of the programme.

Commenting Lorraine Acheson, Managing Director at Women in Business, said, “This fantastic initiative will offer extensive support to women across NI as we seek to nurture their ambition and talent and provide them with the resources that they need to take the next step. Working collaboratively with our partners at Raise Ventures and Barclays Eagle Labs, we can deliver the greatest impact for these women and further bolster the local economy.”

Raise Ventures is a leader within Northern Ireland’s start-up space assisting founders with scalable, high growth ideas to realise their potential and take them from an idea, through validation to acceleration and investment.

Welcoming the launch, Jenny Ervine from Raise Ventures said: “The journey of moving from idea to tech concept into a commercial scalable business is really challenging. For many founders, in particular women they have the innovation, industry expertise and ambition to succeed but need to fill some gaps in knowledge in particular in the technology space. I'm proud that Raise Ventures can support this programme to help develop women’s founder skills and knowledge to start building scalable successful companies”.

Tech Spark NI will be delivered in partnership with Barclays Eagle Labs, a growing network of business hubs across the UK.

Amanda Allan, Director of Barclays Eagle Labs added “We are delighted to continue to play a role in driving growth within the UK tech sector, helping startups, scaleups and entrepreneurs through the Digital Growth Grant.  This new programme will mobilise some additional, dedicated activity in Northern Ireland with Women in Business NI.  This ensures our on-going commitment to support the tech sector which is vital to the continued growth of local economies across the whole of the UK.”