Funding
female-powered
businesses
Making the UK the best place in the world to be a female entrepreneur
Funding
female-powered
businesses
Making the UK the best place in the world to be a female entrepreneur
01
Vision
The Invest in Women Taskforce has been created to make the UK the best place in the world to be a female entrepreneur. If women were to start and scale businesses at the same rate as men, that would mean a potential £250bn boost to the UK economy.*
The problem
Currently, there’s a structural under-representation of female investors and female founders:
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Just 11% of VC committee members being women**
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Only 2% of equity capital going to female-founded businesses***
The Invest in Women Taskforce is determined to address the disparity, drive sustainable change and support women at all stages of business growth.
Our mission
Our mission is to create one of the world’s largest investment pots of £250m, with capital deployed by female investors to accelerate investment into female-powered businesses across the UK.
By bringing together experts from across the public and private sector, we have the expertise, resources and ambition to drive sustainable and systemic change.
We need to break down the barriers to opportunity and provide more women with the access to the capital they need to thrive, creating a better performing economy with improved growth and better productivity.
*The Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, 2023.**Sifted, 2023. ***Beauhurst, 2024.
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Co-Chairs
“Women leading businesses shouldn’t face funding challenges to build and grow their business because of their gender... I know first-hand the importance of breaking down barriers and making meaningful change for female-powered businesses.”
Debbie Wosskow OBE
“Female founders have always struggled to access their equal share of investment – but it is about time we stopped looking at the ‘why’ and started driving action to ensure this history changes.”
Hannah Bernard OBE
The Invest in Women Taskforce is ‘industry-led and government-backed’, co-chaired by multi-exit entrepreneur Debbie Wosskow and Barclays’ Business CEO Hannah Bernard.
03
Who are we?
Focus on funding
The Invest in Women Taskforce has been created to bridge the funding gap and to support women at every stage of their business, from start-up to scale-up. We are:
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Creating one of the world’s largest funding pots for female-powered businesses
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Boosting the number of female angel investors
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Improving funding options for smaller businesses
The members of the Taskforce are passionate about solving these challenges and bring a wealth of experience from different fields from Entrepreneurs, Financial Services and Government representatives.
Drive systemic change
As part of the Taskforce, we’ve created a separate Ecosystem Working Group to help women start and grow businesses. We are on a mission to:
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Increase the number of women entrepreneurs
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Make it easier for them to succeed
Our Ecosystem Working Group includes diverse and dynamic professionals from Education experts, Think Tanks, Financial Services and Government representatives, all working together to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for female founders to thrive.
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Key relationships
Founders: We’re working to unlock private investment and to create opportunities that help entrepreneurs like you to grow your business.
Investors: For too long, innovative female-powered businesses have been held back due to a lack of funding – let’s change that together.
Register your interest below to receive regular updates on the progress of the Taskforce and how you can get involved.
Join our LinkedIn Community – if you haven’t already, please give us a follow.
Alternatively, if you are seeking more information about what support, tools, accelerators, networks and finance options are available for female founders, please check out the Invest in Women Hub.
Learn more