On 5 August 2026, Channel 4 and Lloyds announced the four winners of this year’s Black in Business initiative — each receiving £200,000 of TV advertising airtime plus six months of business mentoring. It’s a brilliant result for the four brands involved. But the real story for Black-owned businesses in Birmingham isn’t the prize itself. It’s the gap the prize exists to close, and what that gap means for you if you’re building a business here, right now, without a national broadcaster backing you.
This article breaks down what was announced, the funding and visibility gap behind it, and — more usefully — the practical routes already available to Black entrepreneurs in Birmingham to close that gap for yourselves.
What Just Happened: Channel 4 and Lloyds Name the 2026 Black in Business Winners
Now in its third year, Black in Business is a joint initiative from Channel 4 and Lloyds Bank designed to help emerging Black-owned businesses grow through the power of television advertising. This year’s prize fund increased to £200,000 per winner (up from £150,000 in previous years), and four businesses were selected from a shortlist of nine:
- Nala’s Baby — a family-founded skincare and haircare brand for babies and children
- Borough 22 — a London bakery producing gluten-free and plant-based treats for people with diverse dietary needs
- Mumbrite, powered by The Motherhood Group — founded by Sandra Igwe MBE, a community platform supporting Black mothers and mothers-to-be
- Tilz Collection — a Yorkshire-based gifting and speciality food business
Each winner gets a bespoke TV advert (produced with Quiet Storm, founded by Trevor Robinson OBE), £200,000 of Channel 4 advertising airtime, and six months of marketing support and mentoring from Lloyds. The adverts go into production later in 2026 and are set to air in 2027.
It’s a genuinely significant win for those four founders. But it’s worth sitting with why an initiative like this needs to exist in the first place — because that’s where it gets relevant for the rest of us.
Why This Matters for Black-Owned Businesses in Birmingham — Not Just the Winners
The Funding and Visibility Gap Is Real, and It’s Documented
Black in Business wasn’t created in a vacuum. Research commissioned by Channel 4 (conducted by The Good Side) alongside Lloyds’ own “Black. British. In Business and Proud” report has repeatedly quantified what many Black business owners already know from lived experience:
- 56% of Black-owned businesses report only being able to access funding once they’d already grown a successful business — compared to just 35% of white-owned businesses facing the same requirement.
- 53% of Black business owners say they’ve had to fight hard to get others to believe in their business, versus 40% of white business owners.
- Almost a third of Black business owners say access to finance remains a significant obstacle, and more than half report limited access to influential professional networks.
- Lloyds’ 2022 research found 84% of Black business owners had experienced negative discrimination in their entrepreneurial journey.
In other words: lenders and investors are more likely to ask Black founders to prove success before they’ll back it, while white founders are more often backed to go and build that success. That’s the wrong way round if you’re trying to start or scale a business — and it’s precisely why initiatives that hand out visibility and capital on the front foot, rather than after the fact, matter so much.
Marketing and Visibility Spend Is Where the Gap Bites Hardest
It’s worth noticing what Black in Business actually gives its winners: not a cash grant, but advertising airtime and marketing mentorship. That’s deliberate. Media spend and audience reach are exactly the resources that are hardest for underfunded businesses to access on their own — you can have the best product in Birmingham, but if you can’t afford to get it in front of people at scale, growth stalls. If you’re a Black-owned business in Birmingham without a Channel 4 partnership, this is exactly the gap you need to think about closing through cheaper, local routes: press coverage, local business awards, community networks, and word-of-mouth infrastructure that doesn’t require a six-figure ad budget.
Birmingham Already Has a Head Start — If You Know Where to Look
The good news is that Birmingham has more dedicated infrastructure for Black-owned businesses than most UK cities. None of it comes with a national TV campaign attached, but all of it is free or low-cost, local, and immediately actionable.
Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce — Black Business Collective
Launched in June 2024, the GBCC’s Black Business Collective is a free subscriber network for Black business owners and professionals across Greater Birmingham. It’s chaired by Alex Cole (CEO, TIN Ventures) with Karl George as honorary president. Subscribers get access to a quarterly dedicated event, invitations to wider GBCC events, and a quarterly digital bulletin covering opportunities and insights for the Black business community. You don’t need to already be a Chamber member to sign up.
Legacy Centre of Excellence
Based in Newtown, Birmingham, the Legacy Centre of Excellence describes itself as the largest Black business and arts centre in Europe, and runs an established enterprise and skills programme. If you’re looking for workspace, mentoring, or a genuine community hub built specifically around Black entrepreneurship, this should be on your list.
West Midlands Combined Authority — Community-Led Business Support
The WMCA has invested £270,000 into a pilot connecting local businesses to growth-focused support through its Race Equalities Taskforce and Business Growth West Midlands programme. Delivery partners include the Legacy Centre of Excellence, iSE Women’s Enterprise Hub, SWEDA, Access to Business, and the Wolverhampton Black Business Network — meaning there are multiple entry points across the region, not just central Birmingham.
How to Position Your Business for Opportunities Like Black in Business
Whether or not next year’s Black in Business initiative comes calling, the businesses that win these kinds of opportunities tend to share some habits well before they apply. A few worth building now:
- Document your story properly. Judges and lenders respond to a clear founder narrative — why you started, who you serve, what makes the business distinct. Get this written down and refined, not just carried in your head.
- Track your numbers. Revenue growth, customer numbers, repeat purchase rates — funders and award panels want evidence, not just ambition. If you’re not tracking this monthly, start now.
- Build local press relationships before you need them. A mention in Birmingham Business News or the Birmingham Post costs nothing but a well-pitched email, and builds the third-party credibility that’s often hardest for Black founders to access.
- Join the networks before you need something from them. The Black Business Collective, Legacy Centre of Excellence, and similar groups are far more useful if people already know you when an opportunity lands.
- Apply anyway. Nine businesses were shortlisted for Black in Business 2026; only four won. Being shortlisted alone brings visibility and connections worth having.
Other Funding Routes Worth Knowing About
Black in Business isn’t the only initiative built specifically for Black-owned businesses. Others worth researching for your own business include:
- The F100 Growth Fund — run by the Black Equity Organisation in partnership with Sky, supporting high-potential Black-led UK businesses with equity-free funding of up to £15,000, alongside workshops, financial modelling support, and mentorship. Cohorts run periodically, so it’s worth following the Black Equity Organisation to catch the next application window.
- KPMG’s Black Entrepreneurs Award — a UK-wide award programme recognising and supporting Black-led businesses.
None of these guarantee funding, but each one is a route specifically designed to counter the “prove it before we back it” pattern the research above describes — which makes them worth your time in a way a generic small business grant application often isn’t.
What to Watch For Next
Black in Business has now run in 2023, a second round, and this 2026 edition, with the prize fund growing each time — from an initial launch, to a wider round, to this year’s increased £200,000-per-winner package. That pattern suggests a fourth round is likely, though Channel 4 and Lloyds haven’t confirmed dates for a future application window at the time of writing. The practical takeaway: don’t wait for an application to open before you start preparing. The founders who win these things almost always have their story, numbers, and local network already in order when the call comes out. Follow Channel 4 Sales and the Lloyds Bank business pages directly so you see the announcement the day it lands, not weeks later.
The Bottom Line
Four businesses just landed £200,000 each in advertising airtime because Channel 4 and Lloyds recognised that Black-owned businesses are systematically asked to prove more before they’re backed. That recognition is worth celebrating — but the underlying gap it responds to doesn’t close because four founders won a national prize. It closes when more Black entrepreneurs in places like Birmingham know exactly where the local support exists, use it deliberately, and apply for the opportunities built for them.
If you’re building a Black-owned business in Birmingham, the infrastructure already exists on your doorstep. The Black Business Collective, the Legacy Centre of Excellence, and the WMCA’s community-led support programme all cost nothing to explore. Start there.
Want to connect with other Black business owners in Birmingham, share opportunities, and get support from people who understand exactly what you’re building? Join the Black Owned Birmingham Facebook group — it’s free, local, and full of people rooting for you.
