Let’s Do Business Finance is a proud signatory to the Investing in Women Code and commits to adopting internal practices to improve female entrepreneurs’ access to finance, tools, and resources they need to grow their business.

The Investing in Women Code is a commitment to support the advancement of female entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom by improving female entrepreneurs’ access to the financial services sector, and aims to address the barriers that prevents women from accessing the same support and capital as men.

“A diverse and inclusive business ecosystem is good for customers, entrepreneurs, businesses, investors, and society. BEIS and the signatory firms share a commitment to work in partnership to make the United Kingdom one of the most attractive countries in the world to start and grow a business by advancing female entrepreneurship.”

— The Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy

The Investing in Women Code comes off the back of the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, which was first published in 2019. The report highlighted barriers that female entrepreneurs face when starting a business and accessing finance, and exposed the disparity of investment between men and women. It also showed that on average, female-led businesses received less funding than those headed by men at every stage of their entrepreneurial journey. This showed how all organisations have a way to go on closing the gap, and making business ownership accessible for everyone.

Key findings from the Alison Rose Review included that:

Only one in three UK entrepreneurs is female.
Only 5.6% of UK women run their own business, compared with 15% of women in Canada.
If women in the UK were to set up and scale businesses at the same rate as men, they would contribute an additional £250 billion to the economy.

The Investing in Women Code hopes to address the findings of the Rose Review. It’s vital that organisations across the board make commitments to securing equality for women in the business landscape, and in doing so, this will encourage more women to unleash their creativity and entrepreneurial spirit in the UK for years to come.

As a signatory to the Investing in Women Code, Let’s Do Business Finance and our partners commit to a culture of inclusion and advancing and encouraging access to capital, tools and resources for female entrepreneurs.

We’re proud to have already supported a number of fantastic female-led businesses in the South East and East of England, with business finance, support and practical workshops, like our Her Biz Women’s Start Up Programme in partnership with NatWest, and will continue to look for more opportunities and ways in which to do this.

Some of female-led businesses we have already supported: