Raising equity finance would have been easier if they were men, say female entrepreneurs

New report finds 72% of high-growth female founders surveyed believe raising equity finance would have been easier if they were men.

To understand the barriers facing high-growth female founders, the Female Founders Forum has brought together a panel of the UK’s most successful female entrepreneurs, surveying 59 women who have raised at least £1m of equity finance (about 3% of the UK’s high-growth female founder population). We found that:

• A clear majority (72%) of the UK’s high-growth female founders believe that it would have been easier to raise finance if they were a man. Four fifths (80%) believe that men have access to better networks and 59% feel they have been discriminated against because of their gender.

• However the funding gap persists, with only 16% of equity finance going to companies with a female founder.

• The chore-gap persists for mothers. Despite running successful companies, half of the mothers in our sample said they still do the majority of the housework. 

• Female founders are incredibly divided over the media. About half (54%) of our founders believe that the media positively portrays female founders.

• That being said, 76% believe that there are significant advantages to being a female entrepreneur. They say they get more media attention, are better able to understand female customers, and can connect better with their staff.

• Successful female entrepreneurs are much better educated than the general population. They are twice as likely to have a degree and 10 times more likely to have a postgraduate qualification.

When compared with other countries with similar economies, like the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Switzerland, the UK has an unusually low number of female founders. Just under a third of entrepreneurs in the UK are women. By comparison, in Switzerland 47% are. This is more extreme at the top levels. If we take founders who have raised at least £1m of equity finance, a proxy for high growth entrepreneurs, we find that only 12% are women.

Maria Caulfield, Minister for Women says “We have seen great progress – including in entrepreneurship – but we are still faced with outdated stereotypes and business practices which create barriers for women in their working lives. Removing those barriers is a priority for me.”

The report has identified two key changes to boost the number of female entrepreneurs.

First, venture capital needs to change. Cindy van Niekerk, the CEO of Umazi says “I’ve worked in finance before – and there are pockets and corners that felt like a boys club.”

Investors are overly reliant on their existing social networks. The Investing in Women Code found that investors are twice as likely to invest in someone they know through a “warm” connection rather than through cold approaches.

Jemma Phibbs, Founder and CEO of School Space says “VCs should create more opportunities to meet them. It’s still incredibly dependent on intros, which I understand but it makes it harder for people without personal connections”

Female founders are often asked limiting questions, that they feel their male counterparts would not be asked. Hannah Feldman, a Co-Founder of Kiddadl says “Women are rarely asked expansive questions - for example how big our business will be, what proves we will become the market leader, how can we turbo-charge our growth?” Instead certain conversations have been focused more on any possible risks, limitations or blockers that could get in the way of our success. I have even been asked on more than one occasion who is looking after my kids when I am attending one of these meetings, which I struggle to imagine a male founder being asked”.

Second, the costs of childcare needs to be brought down. The UK has the most expensive childcare in the OECD, and this typically results in mothers disproportionately exiting the labourforce.

Sarah Hesz, the CCO of bubble app says “Childcare is a luxury that many families can't afford, forcing women to give up their jobs and trapping families into a cycle of poverty. The number of women not returning to work after they have kids is on the increase because childcare costs are making it impossible.  This is a trend that we desperately need to reverse in order to ever be able to achieve gender equality.” 

Maria Caulfield, Minister for Women says “This Government’s ambition is to increase the number of female entrepreneurs by half by 2030 –  that is not just the right thing to do, it is good for women, their families, for UK business and the country’s economy overall. The members of the Female Founders Forum are setting a great example of the many ways in which women can succeed when given the opportunity – and they are undoubtedly, inspiring the next generation of girls to do the same.”

“In my career before entering Parliament, I was a nurse – so issues related to women’s healthcare have always been close to my heart. For too long, women have gone unsupported and unheard when it comes to specific women’s health issues – so I have been amazed to see what women innovating in the healthcare sector have been able to create. If we just touch the surface, members of the Female Founders Forum are doing incredible things. I was fascinated to hear about the work Morgan Fitzsimons and Kelly McCabe are doing at Perci Health supporting cancer survivors with aftercare, and Sarah Welsh and Farah Kabbir who are creating new contraceptives with women in mind.”

Report author and Head of the Female Founders Forum, Aria Babu explains “Women are being held back by the high cost of childcare. We don’t have particularly high wages, we don’t start school particularly late, we don’t have a particularly high birth rate, nor do we provide particularly low levels of subsidy. The UK is an outlier in only one way - cost. Women are being forced back into the home with 40% of mothers saying they have had to work fewer hours because of childcare costs. The government has to address the rising costs by dealing with the red tape that stops people from caring for children in their communities or that stops them from starting their own childcare businesses.”

Katherine Morgan, Head of High Growth & Entrepreneurs at Barclays said “It’s inspiring to see the incredible work that the members of the Female Founders Forum have been doing. We’ve seen women excel in every sector including traditionally male dominated areas like Real Estate and FinTech. In places that female customers are underserved, female founders have rushed into the market to take advantage of the fresh perspective they can offer. When women’s skills are fully taken advantage of we can have a richer and more vibrant economy and society.”

Read the full report here

Notes to Editor:

The entrepreneurs who contributed to this report would be happy to talk to journalists. Here is a list of the founders and some comments they have already given. To arrange an interview, please email

See here for pre-written quotes and a list of founders who are willing to be interviewed

More statistics here:

• Despite making up half of the population and one third of entrepreneurs, only 16% of equity finance goes to female entrepreneurs.

• 72% of our founders believe that it would have been easier to raise finance if they were a man.

• A majority (59%) of our founders feel that they have been discriminated against because they are female founder.

• Reflecting the high-growth landscape, the majority of our founders run technology businesses, with 66% of companies in Healthcare, BioTech, FinTech, Software, Data, and similar fast-growing, innovative industries. 86% of our founders have started businesses in sectors that they feel are male dominated.

• Our founders are, on average, more educated than the general population – 81% have degrees and 59% have some form of post-graduate education. By comparison, of people between the ages of 21 and 64 in the UK, 42% have degrees and about 6% have a postgraduate degree. 

• Nearly a quarter (24%) of our founders have studied subjects which are now directly related to the businesses they have founded, while another 24% have studied business, and 3% have MBAs.

• Of the founders who live with a romantic partner 44% say that they split their chores evenly, 18% say that their partner does more, and 38% say that, despite running a high-growth start-up, they still do more of the housework. The gap opens up further once founders have had children. When you break down the data further into founders who are mothers and founders who are not parents, you see that founders without children are much more likely to split their chores evenly, but half of founders with children say that they do the majority of the housework. 

• Slightly over half (54%) of our founders believe that the media positively portrays female founders and 59% feel that young women now have good role models in business to look to. Two thirds (66%) believe that they personally had good role models to look up to.

• Fourth fifths (80%) of our female founders believe that male entrepreneurs have access to better networks.

• Three quarters (76%) of the female founders we polled said that they thought there were advantages to being a female founder.

• Most (79%) of the founders we spoke to believe that framing of “female founders” is helpful, but there was some hesitation as many find terms like “SheEO” and “Mumpreneur” condescending.

About The Female Founders Forum

The Female Founders Forum is a project co-created by TEN and Barclays. It was set up by The Entrepreneurs Network in partnership with Barclays, to encourage, support and promote female entrepreneurship.

About The Entrepreneurs Network

The Entrepreneurs Network is a think tank for Britain’s most ambitious entrepreneurs. We bridge the gap between entrepreneurs and policymakers, with the aim of making Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business. We have a network of over 10,000 entrepreneurs and are the Secretariat of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Entrepreneurship, which sits across the House of Commons and House of Lords.