SimplySwitch founder Karen Darby has secured more than £1m of investment for Call Britannia, her new call centre business which aims to create 10,000 jobs for the unemployed.
The investment includes £500,000 from Bridges Ventures, £350,000 from Big Issue Invest and £292,500 from the government’s Future Jobs Fund. A further £150,000 has been committed by the management team, headed by Darby.
Call Britannia aims to open 10 contact centres across the UK over the next seven years, in some of the country’s most economically challenged areas.
Darby hopes to create 10,000 jobs, giving recruits the training and skills needed to deliver first-class customer service as well as increasing their long-term employability.
The deal marks the first investment made by the Bridges Ventures Social Entrepreneurs Fund, which was launched to back sustainable and scalable social enterprises. Big Issue Invest was also attracted by the firm’s potential to deliver both social benefits and financial returns.
Ed Siegel, director of investments at Big Issue Invest, commented: “Call Britannia provides the long-term unemployed with an opportunity to break the cycle of welfare dependency by providing a stepping stone into long-term employment.
“We are confident that the company will be equally committed to the making of social returns as well as financial ones. This is an absolute requirement of Big Issue Invest.”
Organisations in both the private and public sector will be encouraged to subcontract work from their contact centres to Call Britannia, while partner organisations will also have the opportunity to recruit trained and skilled Call Britannia ‘graduates’ at no cost.
Figures released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed that there are now 2.49 million unemployed people in the UK.
“This deal will allow us to launch the first Call Britannia contact centre and we can’t wait to get started,” said Darby.
“We want to create a contact centre business with a conscience and believe we can be highly successful commercially, while delivering a huge benefit to the local community and the individuals who work for us.”
Karen Darby sold SimplySwitch, the price comparison service funded by Bridges Ventures, to the Daily Mail and General Trust for £22m in 2006.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009