A new breeding ground for budding entrepreneurs and fledging companies is now in full swing in Birmingham.
The Eagle Lab, at Innovation Birmingham Campus, is the fourth such venture by banking giant Barclays as it seeks to support the city's growing start-up scene.
The new lab is housed in the £8 million iCentrum building and offers companies the chance to apply for desk space which is free of charge for the first six months.
The facility, which joins other Barclays Eagle Labs in Cambridge, Brighton and Bournemouth, provides opportunities to network with other like-minded entrepreneurs and tap into a support network.
It can house between eight and 12 companies at any one time.
Ray O'Donoghue, managing director for Barclays in the Midlands, told the Post : "The lab is part of our high-growth and entrepreneur strategy, design to attract entrepreneurs, growing companies and people from around the community.
"This is the fourth Eagle Lab in the UK and it's great to have it in Birmingham. I'm really proud to have it here.
"The other thing we're looking at is how we can use some of our spare branch space in Birmingham.
"This isn't designed to make money so it won't be judged as a success or failure based on whether it generates money.
"For me, the success will be the volume of people that come through and feedback we get from tenants. If we can see some companies moving on through this facility, then it will be a big success.
"Birmingham has one of the highest start-up rates but where we fall down is that we don't take these firms through to scale up as they reach a blocker such as finance.
"What we want to do is make sure we take them through to the next stage."
Among the facilities and services on offer to tenants are expert mentoring, event space, 3D printers and laser cutters.
Tim Virgo, relationship director at Barclays Corporate, said items such as the 3D printer would give growing companies the 21st century tools one would expect to see and hope to use in whatever sector they went into.
The first tenant to sign up to the Eagle Lab is Khurum Choudhry, co-founder of sports nutrition brand PharmaNutricals.
The company, which manufacturers its products in Moseley through a joint venture partner, works with outfits such as Reading FC, British Judo and British Boxing.
Mr Choudhry said: "My background is aeronautical engineering and residential property but I saw an opportunity where a pharmaceutical manufacturer wasn't really maximising the opportunities which is when I came along.
"In a very short space of time, we were able to establish relationships with leading sporting organisations such as the English Institute of Sport which manages 24 out of the 26 Olympic sports.
"We're one its four partners which is pretty impressive within our first year.
"Our strategy is online as we don't just see ourselves as UK-based manufacturer, we want to sell in America and the Middle East and build an online vehicle where we can sell to all parts of the world and really push the UK brand."
