Gov Launches Major Drive to Bridge UK’s Gender and Regional Entrepreneur Gap
Taskforce Unveils Stark Gender Funding Gap
The government-backed High Growth Enterprise Taskforce has today revealed worrying stats about the UK’s gender and regional business divide. The group is on a mission to tackle the shortage of female entrepreneurs in high-growth firms.
Zandra Moore, CEO of Leeds-based Panintelligence and head of the Taskforce’s women-led regional sub-group, showcased an interactive UK map built from Beauhurst data at Downing Street. The map highlights glaring disparities in funding and business growth across gender and regions.
Women Entrepreneurs Cash In Less Despite Bigger Turnover
The Taskforce’s analysis reveals a massive funding gap: high-growth firms with at least one female founder rake in higher turnover (£125m vs £93.6m) but get just 60% of the investment compared to male-led peers. Over the past year, female-founded high-growth enterprises received an average of £5.78m per funding round, while male-founded counterparts pulled in £9.55m.
This follows the Treasury’s Rose Review, which warned boosting female entrepreneurship to match male rates could add a massive £250 billion to the UK economy.
Ministers and Industry Chiefs Pledge Change
Minister for Women Maria Caulfield said: “Women make up over 50% of the UK, yet just 6% of high-growth firms are founded by all-women or majority-women teams. Women have the drive and skills—we want to smash the barriers stopping them.
Change happens when everyone pulls together. Closing this gap boosts the economy. Government and industry are teaming up because equality is just good business.”
Anne Boden, Starling Bank founder and Taskforce chair, added: “As a 5ft Welsh woman in my fifties starting a bank, I faced huge scepticism. The challenges women entrepreneurs face outside London are immense. We want every woman wanting to succeed in high-growth business to have a fair shot.”
Regional Divide Leaves North East Women Entrepreneurs Behind
Regional gaps are stark too. Out of around 44,000 high-growth enterprises tracked, less than 3% are in the North East—10 times fewer than the nearly 31% based in London. Even more shockingly, the North East has almost no women-founded high-growth firms: not a single enterprise was founded entirely or mostly by women. Only five firms there have at least one female founder.
The Taskforce aims to smash these inequalities and ramp up female entrepreneurship outside London. Their bold goal? To boost the number of women entrepreneurs by 50% by 2030, adding 600,000 new female founders to the UK’s startup scene.
