As the founder of Nourished, a 3D-printed nutrient gummy brand that started in Birmingham and now sells across Japan, the US and much of Europe, I've seen first-hand what having supportive investors can do. In 2020, I secured the highest female founder seed round in UK history for Nourished's parent company, Rem3dy. However, I am in a small minority and too much of the potential of female entrepreneurs and their positive impact on the economy is being left unlocked.

I was honoured, recently to be announced as one of the first members of the Department for Business & Trade’s (DBT) Female Founders initiative. Along with ten other female SME leaders and their promising companies I’ll now have access to the extensive investment contacts of the DBT’s Venture Capital Unit. I’ll be able to put our products, ideas and ambitions in front of the sort of decision-makers who can transform a company’s fortunes. I want other female-fronted SMEs to be able to do the same.

The Invest in Women Taskforce's £250 million investment pool and the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, which offers tax breaks for investors in small business, are excellent ideas, but they need to be bigger in scope and funding. The huge benefit to the economy of building women’s businesses should be emphasised in government campaigns. After all, we make up more than 50% of the population but only lead around 18% of SMEs and if are numbers grew, it could bring tens of billions of pounds, new jobs and new options for consumers in this country.

Just over one in ten UK investment trust managers are female. This needs to change. Along with training for male employees, it’ll help remove some old stereotypes that still inform investment company decisions when deciding whether to invest in women, such as false beliefs that they aren’t as tough as men and won’t cope with competition and financial challenges as well. And it’ll help understanding of some of the sectors that women tend to lead in, such as femtech, which only receives 3% of all digital health funding.

Women entrepreneurs often lack visibility to potential investors. We need to form and join more support organisations, such as Lifted, which aims to get female founders angel investment. Things are certainly getting better, but lots more appearances by female SME leaders at conferences, expos, award ceremonies and in the media would be terrific.

Female-led businesses frequently have strong purpose and vision. They aren’t just centred on making money. Instead, they may want to improve the health of women going through the menopause, say, or establish some sort of inclusive fashion brand. Women entrepreneurs usually have good back stories, too. The benefit of having to battle more than men, in many cases, to establish a successful SME, is that it gives you a tale to tell. Both of these things help create engaging presentations and themes that really appeal to investors.

Women-led SMEs could have one of the most important roles to play in the future growth of British industry. We can determine and define so many of the types of products and business models that will become prevalent. With more support, faith and visibility, this is a role we can assume much sooner than later.

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