A New Look for a New Chapter

It is the rarest of gifts to walk into an organisation as policy and communications director and be told in week one you need to choose from a list of shortlisted agencies to carry out a brand refresh that will be launched just a few weeks later.

Like most people in the tech startup ecosystem, I knew the brand: I first worked with Capital Enterprise ten years ago, when I joined the founding team at Digital Catapult in London’s Kings Cross. Capital Enterprise was a big player on the London tech scene, a super-connecter, influencer and convener of brilliant people.

And so it remains. But after three decades spent developing London into one of the world’s most supportive startup ecosystems, Capital Enterprise now works across the UK, leading nationwide programmes like the Cancer Tech Accelerator (with Cancer Research UK) and the Barclays Funding Readiness Programme (with Eagle Labs).

Following our success launching Amplify Venture to scale diverse businesses, the Ascend programme for women and non-binary founders, and building and spinning out OneTech, which has supported over 1,000 diverse startups, we have experience and credibility in supporting underserved communities and under-represented entrepreneurs across the UK.

Now in its 30th year, and under the exciting leadership of CEO Caroline Gorski, Capital Enterprise has a huge mission: to repeat our London success story across the country, unlocking economic potential and establishing the UK as the best startup support ecosystem in the world, with place-based interventions, such as the Turing Innovation Catalyst AI Accelerator in Manchester and TEAM SY, which has seen a 37% increase in investment in South Yorkshire-based startups since 2022.

So, while the name and logo of Capital Enterprise was still the same as the one I first encountered back in 2014, the vision and objectives are bigger, bolder and further reaching than ever before. And it needs a refreshed brand to do that.?

In 2024, we are committed to properly levelling up the UK tech startup funding landscape, including elevating capital investment in female and minority ethnic founders and strategically redirecting investment flows to historically underfunded regions in the UK.

With our powerful membership network of investors, universities, corporates, incubators, accelerators and public bodies across the UK, we are well-placed to develop new place-based programmes, devoted to building the most effective support networks for startups in different cities, regions and mayoral authorities.

And for me, there was no better way to start that journey than by choosing a talented small business based in Sheffield – Wilkes Wood – a graphic and web design agency founded in 2018 with very similar aspirations to us, “to help small businesses achieve bigger things”. With wonderful ideas and an incredible work ethic, Wilkes Wood have delivered – at pace – a modern look and feel for the Capital Enterprise brand, which I hope you will agree is a great visual demonstration of not only where we’ve come from, but where we’re headed.

The logo itself should feel familiar, but fresher; while we’ve kept a circular device, instead of twelve tightly packed arrows, we now have eight colourful segments in what appears as a ‘loading’ symbol, with two segments still to ‘load’. This is to demonstrate that, like the thousands of early-stage entrepreneurs we work with, we are still evolving. We have maintained a colourful palette which speaks to the diversity of our team, our approach and our audience – although the actual colours have changed in subtle ways - as has our typeface – to ensure they are more accessible and legible for everyone, especially on digital platforms.?

The previous brand has been with us for just over a decade, during which we have achieved wonderful things. This new look should help us keep doing the same as we embark on the next decade of our exciting mission. We hope you like it as much as we do!

– Alex Vail

Policy & Communications Director, Capital Enterprise