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Join for freePosted: Tue 23rd Jun 2026
Although the number of refugees going into entrepreneurship is growing, the founders involved face administrative and economic hurdles that are very specific to their situation.
This session covers everything from recent legal changes and current market conditions to practical solutions and self-reflection.
It'll show you how it's possible to be a refugee and an entrepreneur, how to solve the challenges attached to it, and how to keep making progress on your business idea.
The main challenges for refugee entrepreneurs
Solutions
How your values can help you
The founder of Baytna, Nour Jarrouj is passionate about art, food and community. Nour also works in refugee advocacy and is building a food business to create a positive social impact and support other refugees in the UK.
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Lightly edited for clarity.
Beth: Hi, everyone, and welcome to today's Lunch and Learn. My name is Beth, and I'll be your host today.
For those of you attending a Lunch and Learn for the first time, Enterprise Nation is a vibrant community platform for start-ups and small businesses.
I'm very pleased to introduce Nour Jarrouj, who is the founder of Baytna.
In this session, Ely Ahamed from TERN and Nour will discuss how to overcome the challenges faced by refugee entrepreneurs.
If you have any questions throughout the webinar, please post them in the chat and we'll do our best to answer them at the end of the session.
The session will be recorded, and we will send the recording and some follow-up resources later today.
Thank you, and over to Ely and Nour.
Ely: Thank you, Beth, for the introduction.
I'm not going to introduce myself because this is very much all about Nour, but if you're interested in TERN, there are a couple of links at the end. I want to dive in straight away and give Nour the space.
Talking about TERN, can you tell us a little bit about how you met with the team and how you got involved?
Nour: I'm happy to, but I also feel you always avoid talking about what you do, so even though you're not introducing yourself, I'm going to do it for you.
Ely is my food business coach, who I met through TERN. He manages a programme called Food Power, which supports refugees who want to open their own food businesses in the UK.
I had heard about TERN before through different refugee friends and communities. I was introduced to it properly by my friend Umama, who is a Syrian refugee like me and an amazing chef.
I told her my idea, and she said: "You should apply to the Food Power programme". So I did, I met Ely, and I was accepted. That's how we started working together.
You have a set of showcases where you tell not only Ely and the people who work at TERN, but also a community of refugees, about your ideas. We share different ideas, showcase our food, pitch our businesses and have development sessions.
Eventually, at the graduation, TERN partners with KERB to give us a proper street food experience, which is amazing.
What was really important for me wasn't just the mentorship. It was also understanding the systemic issues that refugees have in the UK when they start their journey.
I think TERN is really great at understanding that and trying to engage and bring in community, because most of us are here without our families and support systems. It was really nice to have that space.
Ely: Thanks for that, Nour.
When we met, you already had this idea and it was already going. Can you tell us how you started your business and, most importantly, why?
Nour: First, I did a panel discussion and concert.
I work in refugee advocacy, so I'm already connected to a lot of amazing refugee advocates, singers, musicians and chefs through my work and activities.
That was in late 2024. I did that very randomly, and then we did our first supper club in December 2024. I did it around the Levant region, so it was food from Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. I did it with refugee chefs from Palestine and Syria.
I didn't expect it to blow up positively in the way it did. People really loved the idea, not only sharing the food, but bringing in the advocacy element, the music element and the whole cultural immersive experience.
That was when I started doing Food Power, and the idea became more crystallised.
Why did I start it? I think it's because I've been working in this space for a long time. In Syria, I was working with the United Nations in the humanitarian system. During my work in Syria, I also founded a similar kind of project for young Syrians like myself. I was 23 then.
It was the power of community and trying to work together on something to find solutions to common problems. That literally saved my life and saved so many people's lives in Syria during the war, in that abnormal situation.
I always told myself when I came to the UK that I wanted to do something for the refugee community.
My whole life now has been 12 years in advocacy for refugees and working in the refugee and migration sector.
I've been working to influence governments, funders and international NGOs to support us and see us as equal humans, not as a burden, a threat or a side problem.
But a lot of the evidence and stories we share are not enough. That's why the problems remain. There are still so many amazing refugees with so much talent who are underemployed. There are also so many negative perceptions about us.
There is a lot of loneliness, not only among refugees, but also among people in London generally. London is an amazing city, but it's also a harsh and lonely city.
That's why I wanted to start Baytna. For me, the most influential thing was doing everyday actions: eating with someone, talking to each other, listening to music together and dancing together.
That was the most powerful tool I found for changing someone's mindset. While we're eating and talking, I might say: "I'm from Syria, I'm a refugee," and their jaw drops.
I found that I was able to change mindsets in my eight years in the UK this way, far more powerfully than when I do formal advocacy, presenting numbers and statistics to governments.
That's why I started it. I wanted to start a refugee-led business that is for refugees, powered by us, changing negative perceptions about us and giving refugees work as well.
Ely: That sounds very good. One thing I think you haven't shared is what Baytna means.
Nour: Baytna in Arabic means "our home", and it's a very intentional name.
Our home doesn't just mean our home as refugees. It's our home as everybody who lives here.
Whoever you are, whatever you are, no matter your background, race, religion, sexuality, gender or status, whether you are British, European, African or anything else, it doesn't matter. You are welcome in our home.
For me, food always reminds me of home, family, love and joy. I started cooking with my grandma when I was nine years old. I wanted to bring that concept of home and a shared table to the UK.
How are we doing this in Baytna? It's a very simple mission, but I think it will have amazing ripple effects across the whole system in the longer term.
Our mission is to bring local and refugee communities together through food and culture.
We do that to shift the narrative from refugees being seen as a threat or burden to refugees being seen as active contributors and change makers in the UK, their new home away from home.
We do that through three things. We run refugee-led supper clubs, we do catering and we do street food.
This is how Baytna is trying to change the narrative. We are now around 14 refugee chefs from Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Iran, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.
That's why we're now able to do these events and work together through Baytna.
Ely: Thank you for sharing that.
When people think about entrepreneurship, there is always this prompt or encouragement to open your own business, be self-employed and change your life.
But can you tell us about the other side, the challenges of being an entrepreneur and maybe specifically about being a refugee entrepreneur?
Nour: I think a lot of entrepreneurs with us on the call today have shared struggles and challenges.
It's really hard to get your business off the ground. It's hard to get funding. It's hard to balance when to leave your 9 to 5 job, or your other job, and when to focus completely on the business.
It is hard. It will take a toll on your mental and physical well-being. That is a shared universal experience for anyone who is an entrepreneur and trying to do something innovative.
But in my experience, it is extra hard to get funding as a refugee entrepreneur.
My friends who are British, European or other non-refugee people living in the UK were able to get business loans from banks quite easily and open their own food businesses, cafes, restaurants and so on.
That was not the case for me and other refugee entrepreneurs, because we have temporary refugee visas and banks often need a very long credit history, which not everyone has.
We are considered high-risk borrowers for banks, so we're not eligible for business loans in the same way. That is already a massive hurdle.
We live in a very capitalist, money-oriented world, so if you don't have money, you're not going to be able to grow your business.
The other challenge, beyond finance, was safety.
We hosted a supper club during the riots in London against refugees, and some people were scared to come. I'm very privileged. I speak the language, I have a master's, I have a senior job and I am white-passing. I don't necessarily have the same fears or challenges that other refugees might have.
That doesn't mean those issues don't exist. Some of the chefs did not feel safe enough to come to the supper club to work.
There is also the feeling that you are in a constant battle to break negative stereotypes about yourself and to be seen as just another person, a fellow Londoner working and living here.
Before we are refugees, we are people. Refugee is not an identity. Before we became refugees, we were students, doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs. We were normal people who were unlucky to be in a particular place.
So there are challenges around safety, stereotypes and financial access.
Going back to financial access, because bank loans are not a viable solution for us, there may be only one or two grants that you can access as a refugee in London.
Instead of refugees working with each other, it can become indirect competition with each other to get that funding.
That's why, with Baytna, I'm not just doing it for myself. I'm intentionally trying to bring in other refugees so they can benefit from it as well. Rather than competing, I'm trying to collaborate with all of us as one unit.
Ely: You've already started talking about solutions, and creating Baytna is your way of contributing.
Do you have any other tips that you've discovered yourself, or that you've heard of in your journey, to share with entrepreneurs and specifically refugee entrepreneurs in the group?
Nour: One solution is definitely joining support networks like TERN, Enterprise Nation and KERB.
These are people who have done this before, who can mentor you, help you with access, help you with knowledge and share that knowledge. We cross-learn from each other.
The first thing entrepreneurs everywhere can do is not gatekeep. I learned that because a lot of people asked me: "Nour, why are you sharing this recipe? Why are you sharing this grant? Why are you sharing all of this?"
For me, not gatekeeping will grow your business, grow your credibility and make you more part of a community rather than a competitor.
London is a massive city. The UK is a massive country. There is so much opportunity for everyone. Why don't we share the love and the knowledge we have with each other?
So my first recommendation is to not gatekeep. Mentor people and share knowledge and information.
The second is to do more collaboration. If you are an entrepreneur, or you have a big brand and you want to support a smaller refugee business, you can collaborate.
That could be a collaborative event, a collaborative product or a small campaign.
We have Refugee Week happening now, and people across the world are celebrating refugees and refugee contribution to their countries. That is very nice, don't get me wrong. But it's much more direct if we do more, not only in Refugee Week but across the year, with collaborative work.
We can use each other's exposure and access to different audiences to bring each other up and build our brands.
The third solution is to challenge the narratives.
If you are an entrepreneur in spaces where people make an ignorant joke or an ignorant comment about refugees, thinking of them as one bulk of people, challenge that.
Entrepreneurs are people who start things, innovate and create change. Challenging that narrative will not cost you anything, but it can have a massive ripple effect for a lot of other people like you who are trying to start their entrepreneurial journey.
And if you have some finances and you want to support us, you can come to supper clubs, hire us or hire one of our refugee chefs for your events. That would be a more direct form of financial support as well.
Ely: That sounds good. I've got one more question for you. What is next for you, for your business and for Baytna?
Nour: With Baytna, we are going to start selling our Syrian burgers across London in street food markets with KERB.
We are working on the final steps now, and hopefully we'll start very soon in July or August.
We've also been accepted into a couple of food festivals, and we're doing supper clubs fortnightly. Every two weeks, we do a supper club led by a different chef, with food from a certain culture from that assigned chef.
This week is Pakistani, next week is Syrian, the next is Ukrainian, and so on.
Every time we share the food, we also play music from that culture. We have alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks from that culture as well. We start dancing and eating together, so it's fun and very community-centred.
We also do private catering for corporates, weddings, birthdays and other events.
Hopefully, in five to 10 years, Baytna will not only be my brand. Any refugee in the UK, whether they are in Manchester, Leeds, Scotland or somewhere else, could open their own Baytna branch there.
So it could become a branch or franchise of Baytna, as a refugee-led food cafe or street food stall.
Hopefully, we reach a point where people see refugees for who they are: normal human beings with skills, who want to eat, dance, drink and get tipsy on the dance floor, just like anybody else.
Hopefully that will be the UK. This is why I love the UK, because whoever you are, however weird you are, you will find your people and you will be able to build on your skills.
Ely: Nice. Maybe one last comment before we open to questions. One thing that's more immediate is that you will be at We Out Here festival. Is that still happening in August?
Nour: Yes. We're going to be at We Out Here festival in August, selling our Syrian burgers.
We'll also be at a day festival called Hafla on 25 July in south-east London. I forgot the name of the venue, but I will share it with Beth and she can share it with everybody.
It's open to the public, so you can come. There will be music, food and a kid-friendly festival atmosphere, so you can bring your children and have a nice time.
Ely: Amazing. Thank you so much.
Nour: Also, about TERN. Ely, I forgot. Just like the graduation showcase I did last year, TERN is now doing the new group of amazing refugees on 4 July.
If you want to, you can get a ticket. I think it's £15, and you get three foods with this and one beer, which is a great beer. I've had it before.
You can come and support the refugees there. I'm going to be there not as a contestant this time, but as a supporter, and just go and have this amazing food.
If you want to join us, please let us know and speak to Ely. He will give you the link.
Ely: Thank you for the shout-out, Nour. I really appreciate it, and thank you for your time. I'll pass back over to Beth now.
Beth: Thanks so much. I really enjoyed that, thank you. The dinner clubs sound amazing. I love the idea of getting a bit tipsy on the dance floor. That's so fun.
We've only got a few minutes, but it would be great if we could answer a few questions.
Are there any particular support networks, organisations or programmes that refugee entrepreneurs should prioritise engaging with?
Ely: Nour, do you want to take a look?
Nour: Sorry, I'm just reading the Q&A. As I mentioned, there is TERN and KERB for entrepreneurs. Specifically for food entrepreneurs, there is definitely UnLtd as well.
Honestly, talk to different people. Through TERN, I met so many other networks. Through KERB, I met so many other networks.
There are also other organisations such as Refugee Action and the Refugee Council, who are supportive of refugees and can refer you, if you're a refugee entrepreneur, to different places.
It's definitely your support networks. You also have to create that support in a way. It's not only about where support already exists. You also have to be a go-getter, meet different people, challenge different people, learn and exchange learning.
Beth: Absolutely. Thank you. I know we've touched on this, but what strategies have proven most effective for refugee founders seeking funding or investment?
Nour: Not all refugees have the same circumstances. Some refugees are rich or have some money, because being a refugee doesn't mean that you're poor. It means you had to flee conflict, war or persecution. That is the formal definition of a refugee.
If you don't already have money to invest in yourself and your business, there are some grants.
If you are a food entrepreneur, you can go to Streets Ahead. Streets Ahead is one of the programmes that gives up to £10,000, not only for refugee entrepreneurs, but for entrepreneurs in the UK from marginalised groups.
So if you come from a working-class background, or you are a person of colour, or you have another form of group marginalisation, you can apply to Streets Ahead. The application is really simple, and you can get up to £10,000 in funding from McCain and KERB.
The other one is UnLtd. UnLtd isn't only for refugee entrepreneurs. It's open to British entrepreneurs, refugees, people of colour and change makers who are trying not only to make profit, but to use that profit to address a social issue.
I was very lucky to be funded by UnLtd. I applied for funding and received some money to buy equipment, pay some of the volunteers and pay some of the refugee chefs.
Those are the only two grants I was able to get. But if you know any, please send them my way.
Beth: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Nour. That was brilliant.
I think that's all we've got time for today. I really enjoyed listening to you, so thank you so much, and thank you to everyone who joined.
As a reminder, we are going to share this recording later, and there will be further resources in the email as well.
Thanks so much for your time, and thanks everyone for joining.
Nour: Thank you so much, Beth, for having me, and thank you, Ely, for the questions.
Thank you everyone who joined. I really appreciate you, and happy entrepreneurial refugee day.
Beth: Absolutely. Bye, everyone. Thank you.
Nour: Bye.
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