Just 1 in 16 UK Unicorn Companies have a Female Founder

BusinessComparison will be launching its Female Entrepreneurship campaign 19th-23rd August to highlight the shocking gender disparity in entrepreneurship that exists in the UK.

Research undertaken by BusinessComparison analysed the Sixteen Unicorn Start-up Companies that exist in the UK as of August 2019 (a privately held company valued at $1bn+) and found that just one of these had a female founder at the helm - a shocking 6.25% female representation!

And perhaps more concerning still, not one of these companies with the coveted Unicorn Company status features an all-female team.

A HM Treasury backed review, carried out by Natwest CEO Alison Rose, titled The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship found that the UK had the most disappointing credentials in developing top tier female entrepreneurs compared with the Canada, the US, Australia and The Netherlands.

Investment in Female Entrepreneurs

The Alison Rose Review and our own research of female entrepreneurs cites a distinct lack of investment in companies led by women.

Of all venture funding in UK companies, just one penny in every pound goes to all-female teams, and only 10% to mixed gender teams. The remaining 89% is invested in all-male business teams!

Perceived bias within the investment finance community may well contribute to these deflating stats, with 48% of investment teams having no women at all.

What challenges do female entrepreneurs face?

We interviewed a number of high profile female entrepreneurs to gain an insight into their personal experiences of scaling a business and the unique challenges they have faced along the way relating to their gender.

A recurrence of themes emerged from our research, including "Imposter Syndrome", childcare commitments and a lack of access to mentoring from inspiring women who have themselves achieved top-tier success. We will be covering these issues throughout our five day campaign next week.

We will be updating this article as our series of female focussed features are published.

nikki@nikkihesford.co.uk