Project “BITE – Building Integration Through Entrepreneurship”

“BITE – Building Integration Through Entrepreneurship” supports the creation and development of small and medium businesses led by the African diaspora in Italy, Greece and Sweden.

The Project is funded by the European Commission – DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.

BITE has been designed as a way to address the untapped potential of migrant entrepreneurship. Migrants are more likely to resort to entrepreneurship than native-born people but report challenges such as low business literacy, hardship in accessing financing, lack of relevant qualification and red tape.

Through its training and mentoring scheme, the BITE project provides migrants with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and network to launch a successful business.

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PROJECT OBJECTIVES

The action “BITE” aims to contribute to the social and economic integration in EU countries of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa by accompanying them in the creation of small businesses that have positive social and environmental impact in their country of residence and country of origin, through a tailored business acceleration process.

To do so, a consortium composed of leading research institutes, service providers, local authorities and NGOs has reached out to Sub-saharan African diasporas in Italy, Greece and Sweden, to raise awareness and collect applications for a training and mentoring scheme on entrepreneurship.

The scheme helps migrants gain knowledge and develop the skills, tools and network needed to start their own business. By modelling every phase of the project through a toolbox, partners enable local authorities and NGOs across the EU to replicate the approach in diverse socio-economic contexts and with limited financial input.

As part of the BITE project, ISMU has launched a social media call-for-participant and selected 47 prospective migrant entrepreneurs in Italy while mapping their entrepreneurial skills.

It is also responsible for developing the project resources addressed to local authorities and CSOs to help them launch or support migrant entrepreneurship programmes across the EU through the BITE approach.

SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN 2018 BITE HAS

  • received 359 training applications from the African diaspora
  • selected 100 participants in Italy, Greece and Sweden
  • mentored over 40 migrant entrepreneurs on how to establish their own business

FINAL RESULTS

Diasporabussiness.eu

is the end point of a long process started in 2018 with the launch of BITE. Over the past two years more than 100 people with an African descent living in Italy, Greece and Sweden have taken part in the rigorous training and mentoring programme developed under BITE. Training participants acquired the right knowledge, skills, attitudes and network to develop and launch successful small and medium-sized enterprises with a positive social and environmental impact.

Diasporabusiness.eu

aims to facilitate the matching between start-ups of aspiring migrant entrepreneurs and potential financial partners, creating a unique European platform that gives visibility to inclusive entrepreneurship projects.

Find out more in our latest italian press release
BITE in the press
Find out more about the project

HANDBOOK ON MIGRANT ENTREPRENEURSHIP
FOR LOCAL AUTHORITIES & CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS

INFOGRAPHICS ON MIGRANT ENTREPRENEURSHIP
FOR LOCAL AUTHORITIES & CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS

WEBINAR 15th OCTOBER 2020
MIGRANT ENTREPRENEURSHIP: STORIES AND PRACTICE ON HOW TO UNLOCK HIDDEN POTENTIAL FOR EU ECONOMIES

BITE in the press

DOING BUSINESS AS AFRICAN ENTREPRENEURS

Doing business as African entrepreneurs” results from a final research conducted under BITE to explore entrepreneurship among persons with an African background. 

This type of research included a European-wide questionnaire that explored topics such as transnational entrepreneurship and access to finance and a focus group with selected BITE entrepreneurs who could assess key aspects of the BITE project. This paper aims at contributing to the state-of-art of migrant entrepreneurship and inform future programmes and projects.

Download the Toolbox consolidation

Funding

COSME (DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs)

Project coordinator

Etimos Foundation

Partners

Fondazione ISMU
E4Impact
Comune di Milano
European Regional Framework for Cooperation (Grecia)
Integra AB (Svezia)