The entrepreneurial spirit of women in the UK has never been stronger, with female founders building more new businesses than ever before in 2022, despite a challenging economic environment. These ambitious women responded to higher inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty with innovation and entrepreneurialism, establishing over 150,000 new companies, more than twice as many as in 2018 before the Rose Review was launched.
Remarkably, women aged between 16 and 25 founded nearly 17,500 businesses in 2022, a figure that’s more than 22 times greater than in 2018. All-female-led companies represented 20% of all businesses in the UK in 2022, up from 16% in 2018. The Rose Review expanded the support for these women to ensure they get the backing and finance they need to thrive, recognizing the huge potential of their businesses.
Going forward, the Rose Review aims to provide more support and access for female entrepreneurs to unlock the £250 billion value to the UK economy identified in the Rose Review. One significant initiative is the Investing in Women Code, which calls for more financial institutions to publicly commit to improving female founders’ chances of success. A total of 190 banks, venture capital firms, angel syndicates, and other financial services organizations, including private equity and pension funds, are now signatories to the code, representing over £1 trillion in assets under management.
Moreover, the Rose Review and its partners provided female founders with more than 800,000 places on programmes and opportunities to access direct support last year, including face-to-face conferences, roundtables, networking events, mentorship sessions, and virtual webinars. In the year ahead, there will be extra support to achieve a new goal: aiming to provide three million opportunities for support over the next three years.
Several significant new and expanded initiatives are already set to get underway, such as NatWest’s Dream Bigger campaign, which aims to inspire young entrepreneurs, having reached over 50,000 students in 2022, and now aims to reach 60,000 students.
Barclays will roll out its Female Founders Accelerator in partnership with AccelerateHER, while Metro Bank is launching a programme of local events for women in business. Santander will be running a Women Business Leaders’ Mentoring Programme powered by Moving Ahead.
The Rose Review will also make information and practical resources readily available to help founders raise money. The Invest in Women Hub will be relaunched in the first half of this year with a new look and feel to support a wider group of female entrepreneurs, becoming the go-to destination for women seeking to raise capital.
The Rose Review will listen closely to the experiences of founders around the UK to deliver the response they need. Across the regions and devolved nations, the Rose Review will expand its help for investors and business leaders with tailored funding and education initiatives already planned in Wales, the Midlands, Northern Ireland, the North of England, and beyond. The Women Backing Women campaign, via the Women Angel Investment Taskforce, is helping women across the country become angel investors and opening up new sources of early-stage funding.
Above all, the Rose Review will bring female founders – and future founders – together. The programme of events is designed to build new relationships and help entrepreneurs to achieve more by collaborating with and supporting each other. The events kick off this year with a landmark Enabling Entrepreneurship event and a roundtable focusing on female early-stage investors.
At the heart of the Rose Review is the goal to unlock the £250 billion of new value that could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as men. In the last year, the Rose Review saw female entrepreneurs respond to challenging economic times by establishing new businesses and setting out on their own. Their determination to succeed and innovate has been inspiring, and the Rose Review is committed to ensuring that they have the support they need to continue to grow and succeed.
In conclusion, the Rose Review has made significant progress in improving the entrepreneurial landscape for women in the UK, and there is much to be optimistic about going forward. With new initiatives and expanded support for female founders, the UK economy stands to benefit greatly from the untapped potential of these innovative and determined entrepreneurs.
The Rose Review remains committed to its goal of unlocking the full potential of women in business and will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that female founders have the tools and resources they need to succeed.