More and more women are starting businesses in the UK, which is good news. A government-commissioned review found that in 2022, 150,000 companies were started by women, double the number from 2018.
However, female-led businesses still face challenges when it comes to raising equity finance. Only 3.5% of Venture Capital went to British businesses led by women in the first half of 2023, compared to 85% directed to male-led firms. This funding inequality has been recognized by the Rose Review, which recommended encouraging more angel investment by women.
Entrepreneur Emma Sinclair MBE has come up with her own solution to address this issue. She is partnering with UK-based crowdfunding platform Crowdcube to invite women (and men) to invest in startup and scaleup companies. The initiative, called Be My Angel, will launch on International Women’s Day and will provide opportunities to invest in EnterpriseAlumni and twelve other businesses led by female entrepreneurs.
Sinclair believes that the underfunding of female-led businesses needs to be solved from the bottom up. She wants to encourage more women to become angel investors and believes that anyone can be an angel investor, regardless of their wealth. The idea is to encourage people to invest their disposable income into startup and scaleup companies.
Sinclair acknowledges that angels may not be able to match the investment sums of venture capitalists, but they offer value-add through their support and experience. The Be My Angel scheme aims to fill in funding gaps and specifically encourages women to invest in women-led companies.
The funding problem faced by female entrepreneurs has been well-documented, with the VC space being male-dominated and biases affecting investment decisions. Sinclair wants to take action rather than just discussing the issue.
There is a broader campaign to support women in business, with organizations like Small Business Britain advocating for greater access to finance and support networks for female founders. The Rose Report estimated that unlocking the potential of women scaling their businesses could result in £250 billion in new value. One of the recommendations is to increase the number of women angels, which Sinclair’s campaign is a part of.
Overall, Sinclair’s initiative aims to address the funding gap for female-led businesses by encouraging more women to become angel investors and invest in women-led companies.
Source: bing.com
