Spotlight - Eagle Labs

Anthony Pryke, Ecosystem Manager

Tell us about Barclays Eagle Labs?

The Barclays Eagle Lab network is one of the largest co-working and incubator networks for start-ups and scale-ups in the UK. Our aim is to help entrepreneurs and businesses collaborate, innovate and grow. We do this by cultivating a community of likeminded entrepreneurs and providing them with opportunities to meet their peers, maximise growth through digital connections, attend curated events and access funding opportunities.

What kind of support do you offer?

We offer mentoring and coaching through carefully selected partners including Cambridge Judge Business School, Panache Ventures, AccelerateHer, Codebase and Althogther.com. We can also help businesses access programmes for growth including Funding Readiness with Capital Enterprise, Black Founder Accelerator with Foundervine and Barclays Eagle Lab Global Connect to name a few.

Why is it important for Barclays Eagle Labs to be based on the Cambridge Science Park?

Barclays and the Cambridge Science Park both have long track records of helping entrepreneurs scale-up and succeed so it was a natural fit to bring our expertise together in one place. I believe this partnership will significantly enhance the scale-up capability in the city.

Who is your science/tech hero and why?

My tech superhero is Masayuki Uemura who invented the Nintendo NES. He made console gaming accessible for all by combining amazing software with equally amazing hardware and succeeded where many others had limitations (anyone else remember the Atari 2600 joystick blisters). 

The way the NES was modified and refined for different markets showed that a product can continue to develop even post release.  With this it created opportunities to purchase add on accessories and enhanced the experience. Something that really caught on and changed the face of product design for ever.