The Rose Review progress report 2023 revealed that, despite a challenging economic environment, female founders built more new businesses last year than ever before.
The report, which used data insight and tracking to build on the inaugural Rose Review findings of 2019, found that women-led companies had responded to higher inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty with ‘innovation and entrepreneurialism’.
In 2022, women in the UK established over 150,000 new companies – more than twice as many as in 2018. The report also revealed that 16 to 25 year old women founded nearly 17,500 businesses in 2022, a figure that is more than 22 times greater than in 2018. All-female-led companies represented 20 per cent of all businesses in the UK in 2022, up from 16% in 2018.
The Rose Review pledged to continue providing vital support and access for female entrepreneurs 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.
“The Rose Review is working to make investment easier to access for female entrepreneurs.”
Investing in Women Code
A total of 190 banks, venture capital firms, angel syndicates and other financial services organisations, including private equity and pension funds, are also now signatories to the Investing in Women Code, up from 134 this time last year.
Moving forward, the Rose Review is working to secure further signatories, making investment easier to access for female entrepreneurs, and highlight initiatives that better support women-led businesses.
One such initiative highlighted in the 2023 progress report is Shoosmiths’ spHERe network.
The goal of spHERe, which was launched three years ago, is to help women find success through creating a forum for meaningful networking opportunities which address the disparities that exist between female and male businesses.
spHERe Summit 2023
Earlier this year, Shoosmiths hosted the spHERe Summit 2023 – ‘leading successful change’, which featured a host of speakers including Grace Beverley, founder and CEO of fitness brands Tala and Shreddy, and Gravita CEO Caroline Plumb OBE, who joined other successful female influencers from the worlds of academia, the private sector, public sector and retail banking in a day aimed at providing inspiring dialogue to action real change and break down barriers in the venture capital (VC) space.
The audience of female founders and VCs were enlightened by panellists sharing their often very difficult journeys to success, and their respective insights as to what changes need to be brought about to ensure equal opportunities for all, regardless of social identity, and where they might seek help.
Several key themes ran across the various panel discussions, such as how companies can use data to close the funding gap, how we can create more diversity on investment boards, and why mentoring needs to be more targeted.
Joining the dots
Shoosmiths launched spHERe in a bid to ‘join the dots’ and to play a part in building vital networks for female venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. The aim is to use unique networking opportunities to help address wider disparity across the UK to help close the complex barriers including an irrefutable gender funding gap. The group also aims to support an increase in the amount of venture capital funds that women led businesses receive from the current 1-2 percent, and increase the number of female venture capital partners and female representation on investment committees.
Shoosmiths is also a proud sponsor of the Gender Index report, where it aims to play its part in building a more detailed picture of where there are gender gaps and improve the quality of data and analysis available, to foster greater gender equality in the access to funding for female founded business throughout their life cycle.
“The group also aims to increase the number of female venture capital partners and female representation on investment committees.”
Disclaimer
This information is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It is recommended that specific professional advice is sought before acting on any of the information given. Please contact us for specific advice on your circumstances. © Shoosmiths LLP 2024.