The issue isn’t ambition. It’s infrastructure.

For years, the conversation around women in tech has focused on the need to “inspire” and “empower” women to lead, as though the core problem were confidence, not structural inequality. But the truth is that the UK’s tech ecosystem still doesn’t offer female founders the conditions they need to scale.

At a recent House of Commons roundtable hosted by Samantha Niblett MP in partnership with Block, this reality was brought into sharp focus. Around the table were founders, investors, and policymakers – and the message was unanimous: the ecosystem remains rigged in favour of male-led firms.

If we want a thriving, future-facing economy, that has to change.

The funding gap is structural – and still growing

Women-led startups received just 2% of venture capital funding in the UK last year. That figure hasn’t moved in a decade. And the issue goes beyond unconscious bias – it’s built into the structure of how capital flows.

Many female founders don’t fit the classic VC profile – they may not have access to the same networks, or they may choose to grow sustainably instead of prioritising hyper-scaling. That shouldn’t be a disadvantage. But until we rethink what success looks like, capital will continue to consolidate around a narrow demographic.

That’s why Block supports mentoring initiatives like the FFinc Forward Faster Accelerator programme, to help female founders who are ready to scale. The programme, which is currently open for applications, is designed to support women in fintech who are looking for funding access, and it pairs them with senior industry leaders to supercharge growth. It’s also why we need more early-stage investment funds with explicit mandates to back underrepresented founders – not just for diversity’s sake, but because there’s an economic upside.

Technical training has to start earlier

It’s not enough to get more women into tech – we need to ensure that the right tools are in place so that they can succeed. That starts long before they found a company.

We need to embed technical upskilling and entrepreneurial pathways into schools, universities and bootcamps, and ensure those pathways are accessible and visible to girls and young women.

Technical confidence is not innate – it’s learned. And right now, there’s room to improve how evenly we’re teaching it.

Affordable local talent is essential

Another key constraint raised during our parliamentary roundtable was access to affordable tech talent.

With demand for skilled developers far outpacing supply, and salary inflation pushing up costs, early-stage founders are struggling to build out core products. For female founders, particularly those bootstrapping or coming from non-traditional backgrounds, the challenge is even steeper.

Government and industry can play a role here – from supporting remote apprenticeships and localised tech training hubs to offering targeted tax incentives for companies that hire from underrepresented backgrounds.

A regulatory environment that enables innovation

Finally, there’s the policy layer. Tech regulation in the UK is evolving quickly – from AI to payments to digital ID – but it often favours incumbents who can afford to navigate complexity.

Smaller startups – many of them led by women – are left playing catch-up, spending disproportionate time and resources on compliance rather than innovation. Proportionate, transparent, innovation-friendly regulation isn’t just a nicety. It’s a growth enabler.

We need to ensure that regulation opens the door to new entrants rather than locking them out.

Building a better ecosystem benefits everyone

This isn’t about giving women a leg up. It’s about removing the barriers that shouldn’t be there in the first place.

The UK has the talent, the capital, and the global profile to lead in inclusive innovation – but only if we invest in the infrastructure to back it.

If we want more female-founded unicorns, we need more than role models. We need funding that flows fairly. We need education systems that equip girls with technical confidence. We need accessible talent pipelines. And we need smart regulation that creates an environment which allows newcomers to enter and grow.

Build the right foundations, and the founders will do the rest.

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