Innovate UK had originally allocated £4 million to fund grants for 50 female founders through these awards. However, the agency announced last week that only 25 out of over 1,400 applicants had successfully obtained the funding, even though some applicants achieved scores exceeding 90%.

In a statement made on LinkedIn, Innovate UK stated: “As public funders, we must manage our budgets carefully. The decision to only award this number was a mistake and we prioritised wrongly.”

After sparking backlash across the industry, Innovate UK has confirmed it will stick to its original funding goal. “We confirm we will be funding a total of 50 awards. This represents a total investment of £4m for the current cohort, as originally committed.”

This year’s competition saw 1,452 female-founded and female-led businesses apply for a £75,000 grant to develop their innovative ideas.

The announcement that only half of the grants had been issued sparked widespread backlash on social media, with both entrepreneurs and the broader business community demanding answers from Innovate UK. In response, the campaign group Let’s Fund More Women swiftly mobilised, uniting hundreds of founders, investors, and supporters to challenge the public body's decisions.

Becky Lodge, recognised by TechRound as a ‘Woman in Tech to Watch’ and listed among Computer Weekly’s Top 100 UK Tech Leaders, led the campaign. She commented: “The Women in Innovation Awards have fallen short of their intended goals, and we are calling on Innovate UK to take immediate action to ensure that future awards are more equitable, transparent, and supportive of female founders. Women-led businesses are significantly underfunded in comparison to their male counterparts, and we rely on a public body to exercise fairness and equity when it comes to distributing public money.

“As part of their acknowledgement of their failings, we would also like Innovate UK’s CEO, Indro Mukerjee, to publicly apologise to the 1,400 women who have spent – on average – 80 hours completing the onerous application process, only to receive inconsistent feedback from assessors. In some cases, we’ve heard of people scoring over 95% and still not being successful. It’s just not good enough.”

In Innovate UK’s statement on LinkedIn, it stated: “We also want to reassure everyone who applied that we remain committed to supporting and increasing opportunities across the system for women innovators.

“We will be contacting all applicants to highlight how they can access support from Innovate UK and our partners.

“The response to this programme has been our highest to date, and demonstrates the increasing number of women-led innovative businesses that are driving growth for our economy.”

It finished the statement with the steps it is now taking to rectify the situation:

• Fund 50 Women in Innovation awards, meeting its original commitment of £4 million for this programme

• Contact the additional 25 successful applicants to confirm funding, starting immediately
• Contact all Women in Innovation applicants with information of other types of support available to them
• Further develop strategic engagement with business leaders and advocates in this area. We have already been speaking with people who have been engaging on behalf of communities
• Continue to work collaboratively to improve processes and co-create new opportunities