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
Debbie Wosskow OBE
The 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 Co-Chairs
Hannah Bernard OBE
The Co-Chairs
The Co-Chairs
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.
Case for Change
Solutions
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.
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.
Major investors, including Barclays, M&G, the British Business Bank, Morgan Stanley, Visa Foundation, BGF and Aviva have stated their commitment to invest in female founded businesses across the country, either directly themselves or through the ‘Women backing Women’ fund. A process has been initiated to select a fund manager(s) to deploy the ‘Women backing Women’ fund capital.
This milestone exceeds the Taskforce’s initial ambitious goal of creating one of the world’s largest investment pools of £250m for female-led and mixed businesses. Backed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in its mission to unlock future economic growth: if women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men, it would deliver a potential £250 billion boost to the UK economy.
An event hosted at Mansion House announced the initial Taskforce investment pool and the fund manager selection process for the ‘Women backing Women’ fund, ahead of which the Chancellor said:
“We all, including myself as the first female Chancellor, have a responsibility to make the economy work better for women. Initiatives like the Invest in Women Taskforce funding pool are a fantastic example of the public and private sectors working together to help unlock the potential of female founders and seize opportunities to fire up the government’s number one mission of economic growth.”
The Invest in Women Taskforce investment pool will be deployed via female investment decision-makers across the UK, recognising that female investors are twice as likely to invest in female-led and mixed businesses, breaking down the systemic barriers faced by women entrepreneurs and investors alike.
The announcement follows data from the Taskforce revealing that all-female founded businesses received just 1.8% (£145m) of the total value of equity investment in the first half of 2024, a fall from 2.5% in 2023.
The Taskforce has surpassed it's initial £250 million funding target
Women backing Women Fund
What you need to know
Frequently Asked Questions
Explore our 'Frequently Asked Questions' for Fund of Fund Managers, General Partners and Founders to learn how the Women Backing Women Fund can support your goals.
Currently, there's a structural under-representation of female investors and female founders, with just 11% of VC Committee members being women and only 1.8% of equity capital going to fully 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.
The Invest in Women Taskforce is an industry-led government-backed initiative with a mission to create one of the worlds largest investment posts 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 access to the capital they need to thrive, creating a better performing economy with improved growth and be
The problem
Our Mission