Investec awards East London coffee enterprise Well Grounded £60k grant
Financial giant Investec has awarded £60,000 to social enterprise Well Grounded, which plans to create 10,000 career opportunities in the coffee sector in the coming decade.
Well Grounded, based in East London, runs speciality coffee training programmes for jobseekers and has placed over 1,000 Brits into the industry so far.
Unemployment rose to its highest rate in nearly five years at the end of 2025, and employers have warned that young people are bearing the brunt of a jobs crisis caused by surging employment costs.
Well Grounded was launched in 2015 with a £12,000 Investec award and now runs training programmes for Brits looking for work in London, Bristol and Leeds.
The 1,000 people who have taken training with Well Grounded since its creation have taken over 18,500 work placement hours with the programme’s 140 partner employers.
Nine in ten trainees get qualified
Nine in ten (91 per cent) of those enrolled on Well Grounded programmes have gone on to obtain industry-recognised qualifications. More than three quarters (77 per cent) are in work, education or further training.
Investec unanimously chose the enterprise to receive the Beyond Business funding, having evaluated applicants on their social impact, financial sustainability, scalability and leadership.
Razia Nizamuddin, who leads the Investec Beyond Business programme, said: “Well Grounded demonstrated the strongest combination of proven impact, commercial discipline and credible scaling potential.
“We were particularly impressed by the strength of the leadership team, their diversified income model, and the opportunity to expand their model nationally, beyond London, Bristol and Leeds.”
Eve Wagg, Well Grounded’s chief executive, said the funding will allow the enterprise to accelerate progress on its target of reaching 10,000 people within the next ten years.
She said: “The funding means a great deal to us – it demonstrates that you can build a financially sustainable, scalable initiative that gives back to society.
“We set up Well Grounded to support those who are not in education, employment, or training to provide a safe space for people to learn, gain skills and ultimately provide a supportive pathway into the coffee industry.”