Empowering female initiatives
Female entrepreneurs contribute £3.51 billion to the UK economy each year.
Let’s take a look at some of the female initiatives that are fighting to maintain the drive and enthusiasm of female entrepreneurs so that new, inspiring and essential businesses can come to fruition this year:
Alison Rose, The Rose Review
According to an independent study by Alison Rose, CEO of The NatWest Group & The Rose Review, £250 billion could potentially be added to the UK economy if women matched men in receiving investment for their fledgling businesses.
The Rose Review has just released its outline of new initiatives to help more women to start and build thriving businesses in 2023.
Melissa Snover, Nourished
Melissa Snover, CEO & Founder of Nourished, and an esteemed member of our Startups 100 list 2023, secured £1.95m in the highest seed round ever raised by a female founder.
After growing frustrated with having to ingest multiple tablets to meet her health requirements, she decided to build a more convenient – and personalised – way to take all of her daily supplements in one go. The result is Nourished, a disruptive new vitamin brand that makes personalised, 3D-printed gummies.
Since then, Nourished has gone on to raise a further £8m in a successful Series A.
She has some wise words for the female entrepreneurs out there right now:
“Firstly, surround yourself with a great team. You’ll be surprised at how much of your time is taken up by preparing materials for securing investment, so it’s crucial that you can delegate other day-to-day items to your team. If you can’t trust your team, then you won’t be able to commit the time you need to securing investment as you’ll still be picking up the wider workload.
It’s also imperative that you sell your investors a story when pitching. Obviously, if your numbers don’t make sense, or are poor, then it’s not going to work out. But if your story is no good, no one will be listening by the time you get to the numbers. To a certain extent, investing is an emotional decision; you have to bring them with you on a journey and make them trust you, and you do that by making a connection through your story.
Lastly: don’t be intimidated! We don’t have enough female entrepreneurs backing themselves and their brilliant ideas in this country. If you have an idea that you believe in, then believe in yourself to convince others. Build a fantastic team, nail your pitch down and go for it!”
Tory Burch, The Tory Burch Foundation
Tory Burch is an American fashion designer and businesswoman who was listed as the 88th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2020.
She is also a dedicated philanthropist and CEO of the Tory Burch Foundation, launched to exclusively provide support to female entrepreneurs.
The Tory Burch Foundation empowers women and women entrepreneurs by providing access to capital, education and digital resources. Her website is a complete resource for upcoming campaigns (such as the ‘Color Brave’ campaign that set out to provide diversity and equality resources for businesses), webinars, grants and mentorship for women of all ages.
According to Forbes, Tory Burch LLC has given £52.4 million to the foundation since its inception, and to date, distributed over £62.4 million in loans to nearly 5,000 women.
More Inspiration
For more inspiration, take a look at the female business owners, their net worth, and why you should never underestimate the power of women and their place in our global economy:
- Zhang Xin, real estate, £1.6 billion
- Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, biotechnology, £1.7 billion
- Janice Bryant Howroyd, employment agency, £830 million
*Prices reported as of 2023
