Pollen Street Capital among leaders launching ‘Invest in Women Hub’
Pollen Street Capital is among the cross-industry leaders that have collaborated to launch the ‘Invest in Women Hub’, a resource aiming to accelerate female entrepreneurship.
The initiative will be run by the Council for Investing in Female Entrepreneurs (CIFE) to reach more female entrepreneurs to share knowledge and improve access for those in need of funding and support, and create direct opportunities to share expertise, networks and inspiration.
Expert content and input was provided by leading financial institutions, law firms, private equity investors and advisory services companies.
These include: Pollen Street Capital, the British Business Bank, BVCA, UKBAA, the Scale-up Institute, UK Finance, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Simmons & Simmons, AA Advisors, KPMG, Coutts, Adelpha, Astia, Diversity VC and JP Morgan.
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The Invest in Women Hub also has a dedicated direct contact resource to facilitate connections across the UK regions, making relevant advice and guidance even easier to access. This resource is supported by KPMG.
The hub was created to address the findings of NatWest Group chief executive Alison Rose’s review of female entrepreneurship in 2019 (the Rose Review).
The review found just 13 per cent of senior people on UK investment teams are women, almost half (48 per cent) of investment teams have no women at all, only one per cent of UK venture funding goes to all-female founders, while only four per cent of deals relate to all-female founded teams.
The CIFE is the industry advisory group for the Rose Review Board.
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“The latest findings of the Rose Review show that the pandemic has compounded the difficulties and obstacles faced by many women in starting, continuing and scaling their business,” Rose said.
“Against this backdrop, good progress has been made this year in supporting female-led businesses, and today’s launch of the Invest in Women hub is another fantastic example of the industry collaboration that now takes place.
“The hub should help ensure that female entrepreneurs have greater oversight of the opportunities that are open to them, whether that’s through funding, mentoring or inspiration, in turn levelling up the playing field for business owners that could generate up to £250bn for the UK economy.”
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“Tackling barriers faced by female entrepreneurs will make a huge difference as we build back better from the pandemic,” said Paul Scully, MP and parliamentary under secretary of state in the department for business, energy and industrial strategy.
“The world of business should be open to everyone, and this new Invest in Women Hub will give budding entrepreneurs the tools they need to start and grow their business.
“With supportive networks to share knowledge with, advice on accessing funding and much more all in one place, the hub will be a great resource for the UK’s female entrepreneurs and innovators.”