With the ability to entry funding can have an enormous affect on new enterprise success – however it’s rather more troublesome for feminine entrepreneurs to supply than male.
Simply final week, The Alison Rose Overview of Feminine Entrepreneurship 2023 discovered that solely 14% of angel buyers within the UK are feminine. Unsurprisingly, this determine is having an impression on the variety of girls with the ability to begin a enterprise.
In 2022, unique Startups information confirmed that women-led startups working within the first 5 years get, on common, seven occasions much less funding than male-owned firms.
Fortunately, a brand new wave of female-focused enterprise funds at the moment are rising within the UK, and hoping to stability the scales. Led by skilled feminine entrepreneurs, they’re dedicated to connecting extra girls to the proper funds and offering expertise to the subsequent technology of girls in enterprise.
So when you’re a feminine entrepreneur that’s trying to increase capital in your startup, learn on to search out out concerning the high 5 women-only enterprise funds and awards in 2023:
1. Girls in Innovation Awards
Every year Innovate UK, as a part of UK Analysis and Innovation, affords at the very least 20 Girls in Innovation Awards to feminine entrepreneurs throughout the UK as a part of a government-backed funding competitors.
Profitable candidates are given a £50,000 grant and a bespoke package deal of mentoring, teaching and enterprise assist. This grant is then used to fund a year-long mission to develop your agency that can start in April 2023.
Purposes often open in August and shut in October, with the winners being introduced in the direction of the top of the 12 months.
2. HATCH assist programmes
HATCH is an internet and in-person UK enterprise group that’s an ideal selection for individuals who wish to develop or scale their current enterprise. Particularly, Hatch Feminine Founders has a collection of programmes to assist feminine founders.
These embody the Hatch Accelerator Programme, which was designed to assist female-led companies develop 10x over 10 years utilizing enterprise teaching, mentoring, and coaching. Graduates can apply for as much as £1,000 in funding.
Plus, when you’re within the early levels of launching, The Launchpad Programme helps you develop expertise in enterprise modelling, finance, communications, and advertising.
3. Feminine Founders Fund
The Feminine Founders Fund (FFF) affords funding to transformational know-how firms within the pre-seed stage (the earliest stage of startup funding) which were based by girls.
It was first began by the skilled entrepreneur Anu Duggal in 2014, and has since helped lots of of girls throughout industries together with B2B, finance, healthcare and client, to understand their enterprise ambitions.
Over the previous 8 years, the fund has additionally developed right into a wide-spread ecosystem of assets, occasions and feminine know-how leaders nationwide.
On common, the fund makes round 6-8 investments per 12 months ranging between £400,000 to £650,000, so it’s a aggressive software course of. Yow will discover out extra about making use of for the FFF on their web site.
How is the gender funding hole affecting entrepreneurs?
Alena Golden, founding father of Rap Fame, a cell recording studio for rap artists mentioned that being in a male-dominated business can even make accessing funding tougher.
“It was a problem discovering and being accepted onto the proper accelerator, which inevitably performs an element in the way you then fund the enterprise. As a first-time feminine founder beginning a rap-focused app, it’s not essentially one thing the individuals making choices can perceive.”
4. Astia
Astia is a world fund that invests in women-led, various companies. The corporate accepts functions all 12 months spherical from high-growth firms with at the very least one lady able of serious fairness and affect.
Its specialist funding course of, Astia Skilled Sift™ is a prolonged endeavor that sometimes takes 4-6 weeks. Nevertheless all through the steps, which embody investor and business screening, firms additionally obtain entry to beneficial connections and recommendation. Qualifying candidates are requested to create a profile and apply via the Astia Join platform.
One disadvantage to Astia is that the agency invests in firms which can be past the idea stage, which suggests it’s solely appropriate for more-established startups which have demonstrated traction or market validation.
Whereas it may not strictly be a grant organisation, the Anita Borg Institute runs the Abie Awards, which have a good time excellent girls working within the tech business.
The Abie Awards boast numerous totally different award classes together with the ‘Move it On’ awards for ladies in coding.
Most of those classes promote a money prize to the winner – plus an bills paid journey to the awards ceremony within the US. For instance, the 2022 awards programme supplied prizes of as much as $50,000 (£37,000).
The 2023 Abie Awards nominations will open quickly. If you wish to get began in your software early, take a look on the Abie web site now to study extra concerning the course of and qualifying standards.
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