Female entrepreneurs founded more than 150,000 firms in 2022, double the level in 2018, as the government looks to make it easier for women-led companies to prosper.
(Bloomberg) — Female entrepreneurs founded more than 150,000 firms in 2022, double the level in 2018, as the government looks to make it easier for women-led companies to prosper.
There were 151,603 incorporations in 2022 with 100% female directors, according to a progress report published Wednesday. That’s up from 145,271 in 2021 and 56,269 in 2018.
A fifth of new incorporations last year were all-female led, an increase from 16% in 2018. The biggest leap in new female-led firms was among those established by 16-25-year-old founders, which rose by almost a quarter.
“It’s a testament to the resilience and entrepreneurialism of female founders that they are creating more companies than ever before,” said Alison Rose, chief executive officer of NatWest Group Plc who was commissioned by the UK Treasury to lead an independent review of female entrepreneurship in 2019.
The latest report, designed to rectify the under-representation of women in business who have long been hampered by an outsized share of childcare and other caring responsibilities, says expanding funding and support for female founders is critical to maintain progress.
Read More: UK Finance Firms Lead Europe in Push to Shrink Board Gender Gap
The report said it would provide female entrepreneurs with three million places on programs and opportunities to access direct support over three years. It also pledged to more than double the pool of female angel investors to 30% of the UK’s overall number of such early-stage investors by 2030.
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