Digital Catapult, in partnership with Sony Music UK and Sony Music Publishing UK, and in collaboration with Channel 4, has announced the 12 Black-founded startups joining the 2025 cohort of its Black Founders Programme. Designed to accelerate the growth of high-potential creative-technology companies and enable them to scale, it connects entrepreneurs with mentorship, technical support, and targeted funding to prepare them for investment and successful commercialisation.   

Female business owners across the UK are working longer hours and taking on second jobs, with 39% saying 2025 has been tougher than last year, a groundbreaking report from Tide, the business management platform, and everywoman, the global organisation dedicated to advancing women’s careers, has revealed.

Female-founded businesses are a vital and dynamic force within the UK’s entrepreneurial landscape. As of October 2024, there are 7,696 high-growth companies in the UK with at least one female founder, representing 13.7% of the country’s high-growth ecosystem.

Starling has teamed up with Small Business Britain for a campaign to empower women across the UK to start and grow their businesses.

UK scaleups are failing to adequately prioritise board-level gender diversity, according to a new study from global growth consultancy Think & Grow.

Early-stage venture consultants, Think Partners, have issued an open letter to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, calling on the UK Government to take urgent action to close the gender gap in business investment – a move that could unlock £250 billion in additional economic growth.

In a world where our daughters won’t see gender pay parity in their entire careers and there are still three times more men named "John" running UK FTSE 100 companies than women, we’re facing a crisis of invisible women in the workplace.

unlock VC, a global community promoting inclusion and empowerment for women in venture capital, announces its 18 female-founded startups to watch.

A new Disability Trading Framework has launched to improve access to supply chains for disabled entrepreneurs and ensure that trading processes are fair and accessible to all.

Between 40,000 and 60,000 women leave the tech industry each year, costing the economy an estimated £2 to £3.5 billion annually, according to The 2025 Lovelace Report: Unlocking £2–3.5 billion.

The findings of the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) latest report quantifying the career and earnings impact of motherhood in England are sobering. According to the data, the average mother loses an estimated £65,618 in earnings over five years after having her first child. For a second child, the figure rises by another £26,317, and for a third, £32,456 more is lost.

Women exit from their businesses for 25% less than their male peers on average, wealth management firm Evelyn Partners has revealed.

When we talk about workplace discrimination, most people immediately jump to gender, race, or disability. While those are urgent, undeniable issues, there’s one bias that every single one of us, no matter who you are, will face if we’re lucky enough to live long enough. It’s ageism.

Most LGBTQIA+ individuals have gone on a deeply personal journey to get to where they are today. For many of us we have experienced shame and had internal battles about how to be our  true self in a world that isn’t always accepting of who we are.

Picture a glossy glass-walled office in the city.

Everyone’s impeccably dressed, their lanyards swinging as they head to meetings, their conversations filled with deals, strategy, and ... Oxbridge anecdotes.

Techstars and AWS have launched a global initiative designed to support underrepresented founders around the world. The initiative involves hands-on technical training, expert business coaching, and direct access to funding and accelerator pathways.

A study has revealed the key challenges facing female entrepreneurs in the UK in 2025, with disparities in childcare and funding opportunities persisting.

I used to think the way you speak was just a part of who you are. A reflection of your roots. Your family. Your story. Something to be proud of.

But then I started noticing just how quickly some people make judgments based on someone’s accent. How a certain voice in a meeting gets listened to more seriously. How a regional twang gets laughed off.

There’s no shortage of ambition among the UK’s female tech founders. Every day, I meet women building businesses with drive, resilience, and vision – despite the fact that they’re operating in a system that wasn’t designed for them.

More than 190 organisations, founders, health professionals, and campaigners have co-signed an open letter calling on social media platforms to end the routine censorship of women’s health content online.