UK female entrepreneurs get a £6.4bn boost but still make up less than a quarter of businesses sold
UK female entrepreneurs made £6.4bn from selling their businesses in the last year, up from £5.1bn three years prior to that, according to new data.
However, the study conducted by Boodle Hatfield, a private wealth law firm, said that despite the growth in the value of the businesses sold, sales by female entrepreneurs they still only comprise 22 per cent of businesses being sold. Male entrepreneurs, by contrast booked profits of £22.2bn in the same period.
Kyra Motley, Partner at Boodle Hatfield said that the gap between female and male entrepreneurs should close if the financial services industry continues to invest in initiatives to even the playing field in areas such as lending and VC funding.
Gender lens investing, for example, is seeking to improve on the 2.3 per cent of venture capital investment going to female led businesses in 2020. Gender lens investing includes: investing in women-owned or women-led enterprises and promoting workplace equity
A number of venture capital funds have been established with a mandate to focus on female entrepreneurs, and a number of major banks to have introduced internal schemes to promote lending to female owned businesses.
Motley commented: “Women business owners make up an increasingly important part of the British economy. These new figures show that the value of the businesses that they are founding is growing dramatically.”
“We have seen an increased focus on women-led tech and fintech businesses, amongst lenders and venture capital trusts. Those are critical areas for the UK economy and historically sectors where women had less participation than men. It is hoped that their successes in these sectors will help encourage more women and girls to get into STEM and help them realise their entrepreneurial ambitions”, she added.