Last week the Ministers announced changes to a Government investment scheme designed to help entrepreneurs grow their business.
These changes came in response to a campaign run by two West Bridgford entrepreneurs, Claire Dunn and Sarah King, and supported by Rushcliffe’s MP, Ruth Edwards.
Claire and Sarah have been campaigning for years to make investment funding more accessible for women entrepreneurs. Their campaign #overbeingunderfunded has gained the support of Seedrs, the FSB and Virgin Start Up.
Claire and Sarah set up the #overberingunderfunded campaign and their organisation WeAreRadikl to help grow the number of businesses in the UK which are run by women.
Through their own experience, they found that many women were treated differently by potential investors than male entrepreneurs, which left them far less likely to be able to access vital venture capital funding. As a result, only 1% of venture capital funding in the UK goes to businesses founded by women.
As a result of the successful #overbeingunderfunded campaign, the Government will now be leading the way in making investment funding more accessible to women. It will do this by increasing the time frame for businesses to apply for funding from the Government’s own Seed Enterprise Investment scheme (SEIS) from two years to three.
Sarah and Claire believe this will make a big difference to many women who often have less time to work on their business as they are more likely to have more care commitments than men and also a smaller network of potential investors. This extra year will give them vital time to prepare their businesses and to apply for this funding.
Ruth Edwards MP has always believed in supporting more women into leadership roles in business and public life. When the #overbeingunderfunded campaign featured in an episode of The Sunday Politics where she was a guest, she reached out to Sarah and Claire to discuss their campaign. She then raised it in Parliament on International Women’s Day and also in questions to ministers. She also met with Government ministers alongside Sarah and Claire to push for these changes.
The Government’s own research estimates that empowering more women to run their own businesses could unleash up to £250 billion of added value to our economy.
Sarah King, co-founder of WeAreRadikl said, “Today is a landmark day for our campaign to help improve investment opportunities for under-represented women start-ups through the UK and we are absolutely thrilled to have helped bring about this change. 145,000 women started businesses in the UK last year*. It may seem like a small change, but by increasing the age limit for SEIS funding for businesses from 2 to 3 years, we believe thousands more women will now be eligible for investment and that this will have significant impact on the access of women to capital investment.
“We know from our work with women-led businesses, that the first three years form the critical foundations for scalable, sustainable success. And with three years to now apply for investment, we are positive this change will lead to greater equality and growth for the U.K. economy.”
Ruth Said ““I am delighted that the Government have listened to WeAreRadikl’s campaign and is leading the way in designing investment schemes that better meet the needs of women entrepreneurs and grow our economy overall. Many congratulations to Sarah and Claire for all their hard work to help more women set up and grow great businesses in the UK.”
Notes to Editors:
- Sarah King and Clare Dunn are Co founders and CEO and COO of WeAreRadikl respectively.
- Data showing the potential of Women Entrepreneurs can be found in the Alison Rose Review 2019
- WeAreRadikl is situated in West Bridgford which is in Ruth Edwards Parliamentary Constituency (Rushcliffe).
