Prioritising access to opportunities

Laura Wiggins, investment director at YFM Equity Partners explains: "To drive real change for female entrepreneurs and business leaders, we need to prioritise access to: funding, networks, and decision-making opportunities.

“Too often, women face barriers in securing investment, not due to a lack of talent or ambition, but because traditional systems haven’t evolved to be truly inclusive. Government and industry must work together to actively champion female-led businesses, increase representation in investment firms, and foster a culture where women’s businesses are backed with the same confidence and capital as their male counterparts. When we invest in female founders, we invest in stronger businesses and a more balanced economy."

YFM’s Entrepreneur Economy 2024 report revealed that 31% of female founders face challenges in finding the right investors for their business – and, according to Gender Index, female-led companies received just 5.8% of all investments in 2024. This may be a contributing factor to why just one in five (20%) SME employer entrepreneurs are female-led – but support far beyond financial investment is also needed.

Accelerating progress for female leaders

Highlighting the first-person challenges of being a female business owner, YFM has gathered three leading female entrepreneurs who share the one thing that they believe needs to change in order to accelerate progress and opportunities for female leaders towards entrepreneurial equality:

Karen Barrett, Founder and CEO of Unbiased.co.uk: “The single most impactful action that society and the government can take to accelerate progress for female entrepreneurs and business leaders is to ensure equal access to investment and funding.

“Despite the undeniable talent, resilience, and innovation that female entrepreneurs bring to the table, female-led businesses still receive a disproportionately small share of venture capital and business investment. This funding gap isn’t just an issue of fairness – it represents a missed economic opportunity.

“To drive real change, we must address the lack of diversity in investment decision-making. Too often, funding decisions are made by uniform groups that don’t reflect the founders pitching to them. In my own experience, it’s significantly harder as a female founder to secure investment when presenting to an all-male panel that neither looks nor thinks like you. Improving diversity among investors is critical to breaking this cycle. Alongside this, we must expand access to mentorship, networks, and leadership development – equipping more women with the resources and opportunities to scale their businesses.

“By tackling the funding gap head-on, we can create a level playing field where female entrepreneurs and business leaders can thrive, driving both economic growth and gender equality.”

Sophie Daranyi, experienced CEO, chair and board member for international private and corporate businesses: “There are many ways that we could and should support more female leaders and entrepreneurs, including increased access to childcare and focus on driving commercial confidence and acumen. But a key priority is to address the clear investment bias against women who currently receive less than 2% of venture capital funding, which is due to several self-perpetuating reasons of perception, accessibility, and confidence. 

“Priorities to change this include the government and businesses providing increased training and support for female entrepreneurs and initiatives to address existing industry prejudice. In addition, active recruitment of more women as investors, NEDs, and chairs to lead by example, champion change, and shift the conversation is essential.”

Margaret "Mags" McPherson, Founder and Director of Intelligent Office UK: “As a female entrepreneur, looking back at my career and opportunities I feel the one thing that I principally initially lacked was confidence and an appreciation of ‘what was possible’. Having attended state school and coming from a small farming background, as opposed to a family with entrepreneurial or business interests, I wasn’t really aware of what an entrepreneur was or that anyone could be an entrepreneur. With hindsight, I had obvious entrepreneurial tendencies but had no idea of that at the time.

“Bringing knowledge about the world of entrepreneurship and business into the education system and school curriculum could only help.  Confidence building at an early age, in particular amongst girls, would also add immense value. I myself have spoken to numerous groups of young people over the years and I hope that hearing the journey of someone from a similar background may spark interest and inspire self-belief.

“I also believe that mentoring can have a massively positive impact. Creating a better network of mentors – for example, either via banks or government bodies who see startups at an early stage – would also be a great step.”