National bank renews sponsorship with Bristol’s Engine Shed

Lloyds Bank has renewed its sponsorship of the Engine Shed, and extended its partnership with the addition of an active sponsorship agreement that will see the Bank’s staff offer their expertise and mentoring skills across a number of initiatives.

Engine Shed’s inspirational talks, mentoring for school visits, and youth events such as Street2Boardroom, will receive advice from Lloyds.

The Street2Boardroom initiative was launched in 2016 by Clayton Planter (a TEDxBristol 2017 speaker), and has been instrumental in breaking down cultural barriers between business and social communities in the city.

The knowledge that Lloyds Bank brings to the partnership will be particularly valuable in supporting Engine Shed’s mission to strengthen and diversify the local angel investment market.

This will be done through providing support to existing angel networks, and encouraging and enabling more female angel investors through exclusive training events.

The sponsorship will also assist the economic hub in delivering extra thought leadership events on topics that strengthen gaps in the local scale-up ecosystem.

Jo Harris, Managing Director of Business Banking at Lloyds Bank, said: “Engine Shed is a fantastic hub of activity for start-ups and we’re thrilled to be playing an active role in its development, as well as in the development of small businesses in the area, sharing our skills and experience with young people and local business leaders.”

Engine Shed Centre Director, Nick Sturge commented: “We are delighted to be able to continue working with Lloyds Bank, and to work together in creating sustainable and inclusive economic growth. This is the third year of support and we are pleased to be able to work together on more projects, which we’ll announce in in the coming months.”