Supporting Serving Armed Forces Partners with Entrepreneurial and Self-Employment Pathways
X-Forces Enterprise (XFE), the UK’s largest dedicated provider of enterprise support for the Armed Forces community, has been awarded funding from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust (AFCFT) to launch a dedicated business start-up and enterprise pathway for Armed Forces partners in the UK and overseas.
In a significant development for military families, XFE is also announcing that the highly regarded Supporting the Unsung Hero (SUH) programme has formally joined the XFE family of services. SUH has established itself as a trusted and successful programme in its own right; this integration combines its proven strengths with XFE’s decade-long experience in enterprise support for this cohort. Going forward, the Supporting the Unsung Hero brand will be the focused home for all partner-specific training and mentoring.
Over the next two years, the Supporting the Unsung Hero Business Start-Up Programme will provide partners of serving personnel and, with corporate backing, partners of veterans and reservists with practical tools to start and grow their own businesses, alongside the community support that has long been needed.
Funded by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, the programme will:
- Deliver XFE’s accredited business start-up course tailored to the realities of military family life
- Provide structured mentoring at key stages during the first year in business
- Offer regular online and in-person networking events to connect and build confidence
- Create a dedicated online knowledge-exchange space where partners can access resources, share experiences, and learn from one another
This focused package of training, mentoring, networking, and peer support is designed to address a long-recognised gap: the lack of sustained, enterprise-focused provision for those who hold military families together through postings, deployments, and frequent moves.
Ren Kapur MBE, CEO of X-Forces Enterprise, said:
“For more than a decade, X-Forces Enterprise has supported the wider Armed Forces family into self-employment and business ownership. By bringing the hugely respected Supporting the Unsung Hero programme and Sarah Walker, who was the founding and driving force behind the organisation, into the XFE fold, coupled with funding from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, we can now place a clear, dedicated lens on partners of serving personnel and veterans.
“We know that enterprise can provide flexibility, financial independence, and purpose, which are crucial when your life is shaped by service commitments. Over the next two years we aim not only to help partners start sustainable businesses, but to strengthen the economic resilience and wellbeing of Armed Forces families.”
By giving them the skills, confidence, and community to create their own opportunities, the programme aims to:
- Increase household financial resilience and reduce reliance on single incomes
- Make better use of the skills, qualifications and experience that partners already possess
- Support positive wellbeing and identity through meaningful work and achievement
- Enable more Armed Forces families to put down economic roots in the community
Sarah Walker, Training and Development Manager at X-Forces Enterprise, added:
“Military partners are extraordinary. They adapt, they problem-solve, and they put their own ambitions on hold time and again. With Supporting the Unsung Hero now proudly part of XFE, we are saying there will be even more support and provision.
“We’re combining proven business training with ongoing mentoring, peer support, and practical know-how so that partners can build something that moves with them, wherever the military takes their family. One of our many pledges is to ensure that partners get the opportunity to meet, and we look forward to hosting the first physical networking event purely for partners in early 2026.”
The AFCFT investment ensures that partners of currently serving personnel can access the programme at no cost. Thanks to additional support from corporate partner Landmarc Solutions, places will also be available for partners of veterans and reservists, recognising the vital contribution that military partners make to the entrepreneurial landscape and to local economies.
Military partners can register their interest here.
