When Women Mean Business For Women

The perception of female entrepreneurs and their place in business is evolving. The female entrepreneurial community has grown in recent years, with women constituting a third of entrepreneurs managing established businesses. Over 140,000 all female founded companies were launched in 2022, and this figure represents growth by over a third each year. In 2023 it is reported that over 20% of new firms are now led by women breaking previous records. In 2022 despite just under 17% of active UK companies being led by women; the proportion of high-growth companies was just over half at 8.7%.

Women continue to encounter challenges in accessing finance for high growth businesses and the disparity is crippling. Women-led businesses received 34% of the amount approved for loans offered to male-led businesses, in real terms this means the average loan finance for women-led businesses is £174,000 compared to £507,000 for male-led businesses.

To address the barriers facing female entrepreneurs, a new Taskforce, Invest in Women, was formed with the goal of bolstering the number of high-growth female enterprises. Industry-led and government-backed by the Department of Business and Trade (DBT), it is co-chaired by Debbie Wosskow and Hannah Bernard, Head of Business Banking for Barclays Bank.

Debbie Wosskow, OBE, a serial entrepreneur known for her ventures such as Love Home Swap and AllBright, emphasizes the importance of improving funding access for ambitious female entrepreneurs. She expresses her expectations for the Taskforce, aiming to eliminate gender-based funding challenges and make the U.K. the most favourable environment for female founders. Wosskow thinks and moves at lightning speed, something I witnessed when I first interviewed her and co-founder Anna Jones as the Allbright pivoted to online learning during the pandemic. It’s this same energy she brings to creating better quality funding access for ambitious female entrepreneurs. She shares her expectations for the Taskforce; “Women leading businesses shouldn’t face funding challenges to build and grow their business because of their gender. As an experienced entrepreneur who founded her first business 25 years ago, I know first-hand the importance of breaking down barriers and making meaningful changes for female-led businesses. By putting funding front and centre of this Taskforce, we aim to make the U.K. the best place in the world to be a female founder.”

The funding landscape for high-growth female entrepreneurship is complex, with funding structures heavily skewed towards men. The Boden review on women-led high-growth enterprises indicates minimal changes in equity investment funding over the last decade, with only two pence of every pound invested going into fully female-founded businesses. In 2023 female entrepreneurs received only 9% of venture capital funding. Despite the untapped potential of high-growth female enterprises, barriers persist, including the underrepresentation of women in positions of influence in equity and venture capital funding.

The field of prviate equity and venture capital funding is one of the areas in finance that has resisted change; women hold only 11% of positions, and 13% of firms still need women in their investing teams (BCVA). Unlocking the potential of high-growth female enterprises stands to contribute an estimated £250 billion to the U.K. economy, identified in the Alison Rose Review on Female Entrepreneurship. These businesses extend beyond traditional stereotypes and are not limited to home-based or part-time ventures. Wosskow sees these businesses as serving the needs of an enormous untapped market; “women-led businesses solve problems that women face. For example, I am on the chair of Better Menopause, a business about health, science, and nutrition for women, pitching that to a room full of men – it’s not impossible, but they don’t have the same connection with the problem the business is solving. And you see this situation over and over again.”

Recognizing the imperative of changing the face of investment, Wosskow underscores the significance of increasing female angel investors to alter the investment landscape. Wosskow acknowledges the importance of changing the face of investment; “It’s an enormous challenge as a female founder to find ways to tell their story to investors if the people on the other side of the table are always male. That’s how we change the dynamic. The answer? More female angel investors! With the support of the British Business Bank, we are exploring ways to amplify the value of women backing other women through match funding.”

Hannah Bernard OBE, shares her vision for the Taskforce, “This is an area I am incredibly passionate about, so it is a privilege to be in this position. I believe that the key to the U.K.’s growth will be enabling every single entrepreneur in this country to thrive; female entrepreneurs face significantly higher barriers to getting their businesses the support and investment they need, from seed funding for start-ups to the challenges of gaining scale-up investment.”

As part of the wider work of the Taskforce, an Ecosystem Working Group has been established to enhance the overall environment for female-led businesses, with a goal of increasing the amount of women that start and scale businesses.