About the Ecosystem

The Ecosystem: Building conditions for women to succeed

We know that funding alone isn’t enough.  In addition to addressing where the money flows, the Invest in Women Taskforce is also tackling how the system operates.

If we want more women to scale their businesses into high-growth ventures, we need to change the system that surrounds them – from the networks they access to who’s investing and what barriers exist at every stage. 

That’s where the Ecosystem work comes in. 

The Ecosystem Working Group brings together leaders from across the UKto focus on the conditions that shape how women start and scale businesses.

Our work is focused on four priority areas:

1. Increasing the pipeline - Creating a strong pipeline of high growth potential start-ups founded by women.
2. Conditions to scale - Ensuring female-led businesses can grow into high-growth companies - with the right funding environment, support systems and opportunities to scale.
3. Systemic change - Driving long-term change across the investment and entrepreneurial ecosystem - including influencing policy, behaviours and industry standards.
4. Using data for good - Harnessing data and insights to better understand barriers, track progress and drive smarter decision-making across the ecosystem.

This work is grounded in listening.  We bring together founders, investors and policy makers from across the UK to understand the real-world challenges women face - and to focus our efforts where they can have the greatest impact.

This is a systemic challenge - and one that requires systemic change.

By improving access, removing barriers and reshaping the environment around female founders, we are working to build an ecosystem where more women can start, raise and scale successful businesses. 

£250bn

potential boost to the UK economy

if women were to start and scale their business at the same rate as men

- Rose Review