On Wednesday 12^th September, SETsquared Bristol Centre Director, Monika Radclyffe, and two incubator members were featured on BBC Points West discussing the prevalent topic of diversity in tech.

Filmed at Engine Shed on the day that Tech Nation hosted an event celebrating the high levels of productivity in the Bristol tech scene, the COO of Tech Nation, MB Christie, highlighted the challenge of raising investment from predominantly white male boards.

Monika shared SETsquared Bristol’s aims to reach a more diverse audience, by collaborating with communities around Bristol to host events and in turn improve representation within the tech incubator.

In the BBC Points West footage [2:51m], Monika was quoted as saying:

“Bristol is a diverse city, with 93 languages spoken, but at the moment within SETsquared we don’t see that. What we’re aiming to do is collaborate with communities around Bristol to host our events, to attract a more diverse audience.”

In her role as Centre Director, Monika leads by example via mentoring women entrepreneurs and founders as part of the SETsquared programme. Further to this, she is driving SETsquared’s commitment to improving the access that diverse tech entrepreneurs have to their world class business support.

Priya Shah, co-founder of video platform Sauce spoke of the change she can see happening already in Bristol’s tech industry [2:10m].

Zara Nanu, founder of Gapsquare, which helps companies identify and reduce their gender pay gap, spoke with BBC Points West presenter, Sabet Choudhury on the importance of diversity [2:31].

Bristol’s thriving tech community has been identified as one of the UK’s tech hubs making a name for itself on the global map. It is a booming industry with 24,754 jobs, but only 19% of these are taken by women, and even fewer by people from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.

SETsquared Bristol, along with Gapsquare and a number of other organisations, are working towards creating a more inclusive and diverse space for entrepreneurs. A recent BAME Diversity and Inclusion Research Report funded by SETsquared Bristol and carried out by ACH and Up Our Street found that greater engagement is needed between the city’s tech sector and diverse local communities to encourage more BAME tech entrepreneurs in Bristol.

Watch the full video here.