Entrepreneurs behind some of Yorkshire's most promising early stage companies are receiving coaching and development support to help them grow.
The Innovative Entrepreneurs programme, funded by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) to drive innovation and business growth in the region, is supported by academics from the University of Leeds.
The nine-month journey combines intensive educational content with one-to-one coaching and development support designed to help participants develop plans that will take their business to the next level.
The academic programme has been designed and developed by academics and the Executive Education Team in Leeds University Business School (LUBS) with the team at Nexus leading the delivery alongside 12 regional partners.
Among those taking part in the programme is Freya Shaw, founder of Immersion Sound Studio, who will graduate with a Masters in Music Technology from the University of Huddersfield in November.
"The programme was broken down with everything you needed for business but taught at a mature level," said Freya.
"There were business terms I was hearing but not understanding and the programme really helped me when I was struggling with finance 101. The nurturing environment and one-to-one coaching had a real impact. The coaches were always available for a call and really cared so much about everyone on the programme.
"I have learnt so many skills which I will continue to use, for example the two-minute pitch presentation really helped me focus on what I was trying to sell and this was really useful with a recent grant application."
Sound is sight for the ears. I wanted to explore how can we represent visual with audio.
Freya, who lives with a visual impairment, discovered spatial audio - an immersive technology that places sounds around the listener - during her undergraduate degree in Animation Production at Huddersfield.
"Sound is sight for the ears," she said. "I wanted to explore how can we represent visual with audio."
Spatial audio enables listeners to judge how far away sounds are. During Freya's undergraduate degree, she worked on a video game with spatial audio where users would experience sound cues by tapping on a phone screen or keyboard.
From learning to code from scratch, Freya then received a scholarship for her MSc at Huddersfield to develop a game programme for people with visual impairments.
Freya's business is now a limited company and she is working with technology partner Red Nought to help make game engines accessible.
Freya said the Innovative Entrepreneurs programme helped her company become ready for investment and build momentum.
"I jumped straight into my idea without any business education," she said. "I was building something, and I needed the business support. The programme really helped me with the basics and how to get my idea off the ground."
Rebecca Padgett, Senior Teaching Fellow at LUBS and Academic Programme Director of the Innovative Entrepreneurs programme, was invited to present the lessons learned from the project at Enterprise Educators UK's National Enterprise Educators Conference alongside Mandy Ridyard, Business Advisor to Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire.
The conference, which took place at Manchester Metropolitan University, examined the future of enterprise education.
Mandy said: "Through collaboration from key stakeholders and across boundaries, this brilliant programme is one lever in our drive to enable inclusive growth.
"I was thrilled to work alongside Rebecca and speak at the national Enterprise Educators conference and deliver our outcomes and lessons from the WYCA funded Innovative Entrepreneurs programme to help inspire other regional multi partner programmes."
The Innovative Entrepreneurs programme has already been recognised for its impact, being named Accelerator of the Year at the Yorkshire Financial Awards 2025.
Professor Julia Bennell, Executive Dean of Leeds University Business School, said: "This programme is a fantastic example of how the University of Leeds partners with regional government to drive greater opportunity and economic development. Congratulations to the team on such a successful programme."
The Innovative Entrepreneurs Programme is funded by WYCA and delivered in partnership with a 12-partner consortium, which includes: University of Leeds (Leeds University Business School and Nexus), University of Bradford, Leeds Beckett University, University of Huddersfield, Impact Hub Bradford, NorthInvest, RTC North, 3M Buckley Innovation Centre, Arup, KPMG, HSBC and Munroe K.
