Why Funding Female Founders Holds the Key to UK Growth

Dr Elizabeth Crawford, Senior Business Development Manager, iiCON

Earlier this month, iiCON had the pleasure of co-hosting a diverse group of female founders and entrepreneurs during a special Women in Innovation Pitch Day alongside our collaborators at Lyva Labs and The Lifted Project as part of the Liverpool City Region’s Innovation Investment Fortnight.

Women leading businesses in high growth sectors including life sciences, artificial intelligence (AI), and clean tech had the opportunity to showcase their cutting-edge technologies and products to a room of investors and regional stakeholders.

It was inspiring to see the calibre of founders who took part in the event and hear from such a diverse selection of women working on fascinating and innovative products and technologies across a range of high-growth sectors.

From a business working to combat plastic pollution by creating a groundbreaking seaweed-based product, to a company using cutting-edge molecular biology and AI to transform the treatment of gut disorders – at the heart of each pitch was a passion to create innovative solutions to real-world problems.

Alongside the optimism in the room, the ongoing challenge that female entrepreneurs face to secure funding was also highlighted. This reaffirmed the urgent need for VCs to must get behind women-led businesses if our national growth ambitions are to be realised.

Currently only 2% of venture capital funding goes to female-led businesses despite 20% businesses being founded by women.  Shocking though that is, the government-backed Invest in Women Taskforce found that rather than rising or stalling, investment in female companies is actually declining. This, coupled with the disproportionately low investment in the regions outside London and the South East, presents a significantly challenging environment for these start-up companies.

This challenging statistic really gave us pause for thought at Women in Innovation event, particularly given the critical role women have to play in driving our economy forward. Women are concentrated in important high-growth sectors such as climate, health, and education and social care that are aligned our national growth strategy.

They also bring much-needed skills to industry, particularly tech and AI.  Attributes such as outstanding communication, the ability to collaborate effectively, and driving performance through empathic leadership are vital in Industry 5.0.

These qualities were showcased in spades at the pitch event and it was heartening to hear about the great work being done at Innovate UK, The Lifted Project, Let’s Fund More Women, and Lyva Labs to support women in innovation.

The Lifted Project is working across five key cities in the UK to create ultra connected ecosystems, armed with local data to highlight the benefits of backing women. Sharing knowledge and networks, the organisation is profiling and supporting women aspiring to scale and grow their businesses, in a practical way.

Lyva Labs, which commercialises innovation to drive growth within the Liverpool City Region, is pushing to close the funding gap with 50% of its investment portfolio backing female founded or led companies.

While the Invest In Women network champions grant funding for female entrepreneurs. The group is working with Innovate UK to drive an increased share of the funding pot for female led businesses; create an easier application process; and ensure more inclusive assessment when choosing who gets funded.

At iiCON, we see first-hand everyday the benefits of both working with female founded and led businesses within our network and within iiCON, driving our strategic direction and leading innovative research across many of our 11 platforms.

As an organisation founded to drive forward cutting-edge innovation; collaborating with a diverse range of founders is critical to iiCON’s sustainability and success. The female-led businesses and organisations in our network of partners and collaborators play a key role in supercharging diversity of ideas, originality and innovation. Their contribution is vital.

We’re working closely with organisations including UKRI to nurture innovation from female entrepreneurs and researchers developing novel solutions and technologies to combat infectious diseases.

By supporting entrepreneurs and researchers at this early stage and ensuring we’re opening out funding opportunities for women, we’re hope to help supercharge the calibre of concepts journeying through the innovation pipeline. This ultimately raises the bar for everyone and creates a richer, more diverse ecosystem where true innovation thrives.