Last week I was delighted to be able to host the launch of Accelerate to Excel in the House of Lords. This was an event in collaboration with The Female Founders Forum, Barclays and the Entrepreneurs Network to shine a light on the challenges female entrepreneurs still face when it comes to funding.
There were so many inspiring women in the room, sharing their insight and experience and it was a real privilege to be among them. The key findings of the report include:
11.4% of equity finance went to companies with a female founder and just 3.5% to companies with an all-female team (less than in 2013)
Despite both men and women being shown to be equally successful in sustaining a business once established, male led small businesses are 5 times more likely to scale up to £1m
The gender gap accounts for 1 million missing businesses – and investing in female entrepreneurs could add £250bn to the UK economy.
Female founded companies account for less than 3% of Venture Capital funding deals involving AI start-ups.
But it is not all doom and gloom – female founders are resilient, and there has been a rise in the number of investment deals involving female teams. But we are all impatient for change!
