National Women’s Enterprise Week, in partnership with the British Library Business & IP Centre Network, has opened applications for a three-day accelerator programme for female entrepreneurs.
The free programme includes exclusive access to mentorship, resources and expert advice before the entrepreneurs will be invited to pitch to a panel of venture capitalists and angel investors.
Judy Naake MBE (founder of San Tropez Tan), Rubina Singh (of Foresight Ventures), Gail Armstrong (of Lavender Investment) and OakNorth Bank will lead this year’s judging panel alongside Alison Cork MBE, founder of National Women’s Enterprise Week.
Ten free spaces are available across five regions in the UK (the North and Northeast, Midlands and East England, South West and Wales, London and the South East, and Scotland and Northern Ireland) within two different categories: startup and, for businesses turning over £80,000 per annum, scaleup.
The free accelerator programme is hosted at the British Library Business & IP Centre in London and will include accommodation, and breakfast and lunch.
Supplementary nationwide events will also be held between 16-20th June 2025.
A new report developed by NWEW, launched ahead of International Women’s Day on Saturday, reveals a staggering inequality in investments and the disproportionate success rates between male and female entrepreneurs’ funding applications.
The report, The Investment Reset: Steps to Closing the Gender Funding Gap, was formed with research built in partnership with Sapio Research. It polled 200 entrepreneurs and 200 investors in the UK and revealed that female entrepreneurs are less likely to be successful in funding applications, receive lower amounts of funding even when they were successful and wait longer to receive funding than their male counterparts.
The report found a 36% difference between male and female entrepreneurs who have applied or are currently applying for early-stage/seed business funding, and female founders are 31% less likely to be successful.
Additionally, male founders received 44% more funding than female founders. As such, 60% of the total investors surveyed said their portfolio was made up of either all-male or majority-male founders.
For the female entrepreneurs who have received funding, aside from the money itself, the report found they value advice from their investment partners much more than male founders (54% vs 27%).
Female investors are up to twice as likely to invest in companies founded by women. Indeed, only 5% of all investors, all of them women, said their portfolios contained a majority of female-led businesses.
Conversely, 42% of male investors in our survey have a majority male-led portfolio (vs 29% of female investors), with none of these investors having a majority of female-led companies.
Cork said: ”This report should serve as a catalyst for action. Fully female-founded companies receive just 2p of every £1 of equity investment and they have to fight to just get in the door.
“The fact is, with fewer female investors, women-led businesses are more likely to be left behind. This is despite female-founded businesses being quicker to turn a profit, which NWEW unearthed in 2022. It is vital that investors of all genders back female-founded businesses, and set equality targets to ensure a broad portfolio.
“The report findings show not only do female entrepreneurs lack the financial opportunities men do, but they also significantly value advice and guidance but often don’t know where to find it. This is why National Women’s Enterprise Week is so important, and I encourage women to apply for the accelerator programme to showcase their business, and gain support and mentorship from our community.”