About the Ecosystem

The Invest in Women Taskforce is a national initiative backed by the Department for Business and Trade and His Majesty’s Treasury, driving forward practical solutions to increase investment into female investors and entrepreneurs across the UK.

The Ecosystem: Building conditions for women to succeed
We know that funding alone isn’t enough.  While we work to shift where the money flows, the Invest in Women Taskforce is also tackling how the system operates – and for whom.
 
If we want more women to build and scale successful businesses, we need to change the system that surrounds them – from the networks they access to who’s investing and what barriers exist at every stage.

That’s where our Ecosystem work comes in.
 
Through our Ecosystem Working Group – made up of leaders from across the UK – we’re focused on shifting the conditions that shape how women build businesses. That means:

1. Increase the proportion of female angel investors, creating a virtuous cycle of women backing women in the investment ecosystem.
2. Providing accessible, smaller scale funding in the form of grants to support earlier stage founders
3. Enable and inspire more women to consider starting a business and providing them with the necessary tools
4. Ensure that female-led businesses have the tools, resources and networks to scale successfully
5. Create a long-term shit in the entrepreneurial and investment ecosystem through influencing policy and industry actions

This work is grounded in listening. We’ve hosted nationwide roundtables to hear directly from founders, investors and policy makers, to help us target the real-world friction that women face in starting and scaling their business.
 
This is a systemic problem – and we’re building an ecosystem that recognises the value that women create, and clears the path for them to build, raise and scale. 

Backed by: