Plans to increase the number of British female entrepreneurs by 50% have taken a leap forward after the Uk government has backed an initiative, Investing in Women Code, to improve female entrepreneurs’ access to finance, resources and tools. More importantly, major banks and venture capital firms have signalled their support. Something lesser than critical if the initiative is to come to fruition.
In fact, the support from big banks and investment companies have been positive and many banks like Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Santander, TSB, Metro Bank, the Co-operative Bank and Bank of Ireland UK have all signed up to the Investing in Women Code, alongside venture capital firms Frontline, Episode 1, and Angel networks UK Business Angel Association, Angel Academe, and institutional investor British Business Bank.
The Investing in Women Code went live on July 15, after a paper was published by the government. In it, it was disclosed that a diverse and inclusive business ecosystem is good for customers, entrepreneurs, businesses, investors, and society. That is why the HM Treasury and the signatory firms share a commitment to work in partnership to make the United Kingdom one of the most attractive countries in the world to start and grow a business by advancing female entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom.
Simply put, the Investing in Women code is a commitment to support female entrepreneurship in the UK by improving women’s access to the advice, resources and finance needed to build a business. Something very much needed to close the equality gap.
Jenny Tooth, CEO of the UK Business Angels Association commented about the current context: “The proportion of equity in the UK going to companies with at least one female founder has declined to 18% from 20% in 2017. Companies with female founders were only five per cent of total deals and only two per cent of total investment value. This reveals the challenge that women founders have in accessing growth stage capital. The magnitude of the task to get women their fair proportion of equity is vast.
According to the British Business Bank, start-ups with all-female founder teams get less than 1% of available capital compared with 89% invested in all-male founders. Mixed gender teams make up the remaining 10%. Contextualised by the fact that currently, only 14% of business angel investors in the UK are women.
“However, angel investments in women founders represent 22% of seed stage deals, highlighting that angel investors are a significant source of investment for companies with at least one female founder and demonstrate the importance of encouraging more female angel investors who are much more likely to support female-founded business,” Jenny continued.
And she concluded with: “The creation of the Investing in Women Code should be a great stride in the right direction for assisting women in business. We continually fight for greater parity in the investment arena at the UK Business Angels Association, but we need to galvanise support from industry leaders and governance to make our task a successful one. To have government-backed initiatives will bring the conversation of backing female business leaders to the very forefront of what we are trying to achieve, and hopefully make our task less of an uphill struggle.”
Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.
