A food and drink entrepreneur who appeared on Gordon Ramsey’s new Apprentice-style food entrepreneur contest, Future Food Stars, has highlighted the challenges BAME (black Asian and minority ethnic) business owners face in scaling their ventures.
Asher Flowers, who runs breakfast brand Enjoy Rogue, said that it’s very difficult for black entrepreneurs to raise private equity funds to grow their business compared to their white counterparts.
Asher said: “It’s easy to start a food business, but very difficult to grow one. There are a lot of ethnically diverse people who get into entrepreneurship. About 13% of the UK population are BAME, but 50% of start-up loan applications are from BAME backgrounds. So, you’re already over-indexing on people who are taking out loans.
