London-based Brazilian-born business expert Rafael dos Santos has opened London’s first co-working space dedicated to supporting migrant entrepreneurs. Located in Aldgate East, Whitechapel, the hub provides an affordable serviced office space to help people grow and nurture their businesses.
Rafael dos Santos has created mi-HUB to overcome the difficulties that migrant entrepreneurs face when starting or running a business in London. As a successful migrant entrepreneur Rafael dos Santos has a great understanding in how to support entrepreneurs and how to provide opportunities which encourage business growth. In addition to mi-HUB’s competitively priced serviced offices it also offers training through the Migrant Business Accelerator programme. The six-month course led by Rafael dos Santos focuses on helping participants to structure their business to access finance, one of the biggest barriers for migrant entrepreneurs.
Rafael dos Santos moved to London at the age of 21 in 2002 after living in Sao Paulo, one of the world’s largest cities, for two years. He left his job in Brazil as a support analyst at Microsoft to learn English in London.
Until 2003 Rafael worked as a kitchen porter, cleaner, glass collector and waiter to pay his expenses. An opportunity to manage houses came available and within two years later he was running his own business. In 11 years his portfolio grew from 1 to 50 homes, 15 members of staff and a turnover of £1.2 million. Rafael rented accommodation to more than 2,000 young professionals and student migrants.
In 2015 Rafael began his mission to support migrant entrepreneurs who wanted to start or grow their businesses. He introduced the Migrant Business Accelerator programme as a pilot project which featured 25 mentors who donated their time to help participants train for the future. The programme evolved to become mi-HUB.
Rafael dos Santos said, “Recent research in Stratford, London showed that the three key issues migrants face when starting or running a business is a lack of network, lack of knowledge and lack of funding.
“mi-HUB has been created to help address these issues and to help migrant entrepreneurs thrive in the modern working world.
“I worked hard to achieve my dreams and tackled the challenges migrant entrepreneurs face. It’s difficult relocating to a new country and even harder to start a business. It’s incredibly rewarding that I am now in a position to help other migrant entrepreneurs from around the world.
“My vision is to help one million migrant entrepreneurs in the next ten years. We have just welcomed the first member to the mi-HUB family and we look forward to welcoming many more.”
mi-HUB hosts 150 entrepreneurs and offers a variety of desk options in a modern environment based in London. The office space benefits from private offices, boardrooms, meeting rooms and the ability to host large events. Alongside the professional facilities a large balcony, kitchen, shower room and multiple relaxing break out areas are provided to the members of mi-HUB.
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