Barclays and Aviva help raise £250m to support female entrepreneurs
The Invest in Women Taskforce has secured over £250m from investors, including Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Aviva, to fund the support of female entrepreneurs.
The Taskforce was set up to boost investment in female-led companies and improve access to funding for entrepreneurs. The £250m fund, which was announced today, will be deployed via female investment decision-makers across the UK.
Barclays, M&G, British Business Bank and Aviva have each committed £50m, with BGF and Morgan Stanley contributing £25m and Visa Foundation chipping in £5m.
The announcement follows data from the Taskforce revealing that all-female founded businesses received just 1.8 per cent (£145m) of the total value of equity investment in the first half of 2024, a fall from 2.5 per cent in 2023.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who backed the Taskforce’s fundraise in September, said: “We all, including myself as the first female Chancellor, have a responsibility to make the economy work better for women. Initiatives like the Invest in Women Taskforce funding pool are a fantastic example of the public and private sectors working together to help unlock the potential of female founders and seize opportunities to fire up the government’s number one mission of economic growth.”
The Invest in Women Taskforce is the successor to the Rose Review, an independent review of female entrepreneurship which found that a £250bn boost could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled their businesses at the same rate as men.
Debbie Wosskow, co-chair of the Invest in Women Taskforce, said: “Female entrepreneurs and investors have been sidelined for too long – they are two sides of the same coin. It’s time we rebooted the system and gave female investors the power to drive change, and funds like the ‘Women backing Women’ fund is how we do it.”
Hannah Bernard, head of business banking at Barclays and co-chair of the Taskforce, added: “Our funding partners not only recognise the moral imperative to drive systemic change for female investors and founders, they recognise that this also makes strong commercial sense. Studies show that female-led businesses generate 35 per cent higher returns than male-led businesses. The ‘Invest in Women’ funding pool is about changing the landscape of investment.”