Female-founded startups secured just 3.5% of funding in the first half of 2023, compared with 85.1% of male-led startups, according to a report out today (2 November) from UK think tank The Entrepreneurs Network in partnership with Barclays, which together run The Female Founders Forum. The remaining 11.4% of startups that received funding are founded by mixed gender teams.
The data, compiled by research company Beauhurst, also shows that female-founded startups account for just 10.5% of deals in H1 2023. Male founded startups account for 75% of deals and mixed gender teams 15%.
The research shows that male-led small businesses are five times more likely to
scale up to £1 million turnover than female-led small businesses, despite the fact that women are as successful as men in sustaining a business once established, with 73% of entrepreneurs of both sexes running businesses older than 3.5 years.
Commenting on the report, Caroline Nokes, a Conservative MP and chair of Women and Equalities Committee said: “In reading this report, I was especially struck by the personal testimonies of the female founders who, despite showing the ability to build incredibly successful companies, continue to be treated as less capable businesspeople. These are not individual cases but, rather, they reflect a deeper problem – a problem I know personally from countless cases I heard from my constituents. If women today need to keep fighting these battles, then young girls also grow up expecting to deal with them too. This cannot be a legacy we leave for the next generation if we are to see a brighter future for our country.”
You can read the report in full here: https://www.tenentrepreneurs.org/research/category/Female+Founders