Date/Time
Date(s) - 8 April 2026
6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Categories
A Conversation with Karen Davies
Founder and Chief Executive of Purple Shoots
Date: Wednesday 8 April
Time: 18:30 – 21:00
Venue: Institute of Economic Affairs, 2 Lord Street, Wedstminster, London. SW1P 3LB
Join us for the sixth talk in our Entrepreneurship Seminar Series, where Lord Kamall (Honorary Research Fellow, Vinson Centre) interviews leading entrepreneurs at the forefront of innovation and enterprise. This joint seminar series is hosted by the Vinson Centre, the Institute of Economic Affairs, and the Buckingham Enterprise and Innovation Unit.
Karen Davies is the founder and chief executive of Purple Shoots, a charity which tackles poverty, unemployment and social isolation through enterprise. It provides microfinance (small ethical loans to enable people to start a business) to people on the margins of the economy and enables people further away from work to take positive steps forward towards income generation and work through self-reliant groups and other wrap around support. Prior to setting up Purple Shoots 12 years ago, Karen’s experience included a number of years working in the financial sector in the City of London, ten years with a national lending institution and ten years in small businesses; a graduate from Oxford University, her academic attainment includes masters degrees in both geography and economic development.
Purple Shoots’ model combines patient finance with relational support to create new possibilities for entrepreneurs locked out of mainstream finance but not lacking capability or ambition. They work with people whose lives don’t fit standard financial models, not because they are high risk but because those models are too narrow to accommodate disruption. By backing small-scale enterprise, Purple Shoots believes they are restoring access at the point where economic growth actually begins, enabling effort to become income and early enterprise to become sustainable livelihoods.