Accelerating innovation at the intersection of technology, culture and creativity —

Every Bit
Barbados

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Small is Beautiful

In the 1970s, E.F. Schumacher said small is beautiful, influencing generations to re-imagine economics as if people matter. His is the inspiration behind EVERYBIT Barbados. 

It infuses who we are and what we do. We believe small things have huge impact. We celebrate people who create and innovate at the margins. We champion the small places, ideas, details, solutions that are so easy to overlook but that add the flavour, the zest, to our lives. 

A little of this. A tidbit of that. A splash here. A sprinkling there. A pinch, a sliver, a bit, a tiny bite. Small things have value.

every BIT matters

As a design philosophy, this notion also lies at the heart of the digital revolution. 

It’s the key to disrupting the status quo, decentralising power, inspiring communities, and placing people at the centre of social and economic development, which is where they have always belonged. 

Ultimately, it’s ordinary, average, everyday people and places that create real, lasting value.

A Pinch of the Past

21 miles long and 14 miles wide with a population of around 290,000, the tiny Caribbean island of Barbados was once described by a former Secretary General of the United Nations as punching above its weight. 

The birthplace of Rihanna, cricket legend Sir Garfield Sobers, rum, the grapefruit, and the blackbelly sheep, Barbados holds a unique place in world history.

Beginning in 1627 when the first English colonisers arrived, and for centuries after, Barbados was a global warehouse which served as a duty-free port for the importation of slaves from Africa, the production of valuable agricultural commodities, and the exportation of those “goods” to other parts of the Caribbean, the Americas and to Europe. 

Between 1627 and 1807, close to 400,000 Africans were forcibly transported to Barbados in filthy overcrowded ships that made the Middle Passage between Africa and the Americas one of the most horrific genocides in human history. At the peak of that inexcusable transatlantic slave trade, Barbados amassed tremendous wealth for the British Empire. 

By the end of the 17th century, Barbados was the most valuable jewel in Britain’s Caribbean treasury, fuelled by, and dependent on slave labour with cash-crops grown purely for profit on plantations throughout the island. Fortunes generated in here and in other islands funded Europe’s drive towards modernity. 

In this current age of weightless digital products and services, where knowledge and creativity are the new currency, it’s time to re-imagine progress for the peoples of the African Diaspora in the Americas in ways that balance the scales of history and embed the principles of social justice and racial equity.

Initiatives

Designing And Nurturing A National Innovation Ecosystem

CONCISE INITIATIVES FOR BARBADOS’ DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Investment Fund

We raise and manage cluster funding and impact financing to take great ideas to market, to capitalise start-ups, and to finance scale-ups in a diversified national and regional innovation ecosystem.

Skills Nexus

We nurture the next generation of innovators, creatives and entrepreneurs, teaching them how to turn great ideas into profitable enterprises that do good while doing well.

Talent Hub

We attract the best people and expertise from around the region and the world to live, work, imagine, build and invest in Barbados-based creative and tech companies.

Hand-Holding Thought Leadership Programme

We expose community members to industry leaders from diverse sectors and markets, offering coaching, mentorship and guidance on what it takes to be the best. We also provide candid advice to policymakers on the elements necessary to produce a world-class Barbados tech and creative ecosystem.

Innovation Lab

Our community members have access to cutting-edge emerging technologies and tech solutions with which we play, explore, create, and build tangible value.

Go-To-Market Incubator

We support local, regional and global start-ups and scale-ups, helping them expand their market footprint using Barbados and its unique treaty network to engage the world.

R&D Accelerator

We help speed great ideas to market based on targeted research and tech-based development. Our National App Development Store offers sandboxes in specialised areas like fintech, govtech, civtech, health tech, and edutech to provide the policy and rules-based architecture developers and innovators need to create tech solutions for governments. We provide specific guidance on the different policy, legal, regulatory, and operational standards that need to be met before a solution is certified as market-ready.