Women entrepreneurs gain half as much funding as men

FEMALE entrepreneurs have to start up businesses with only half as much capital as men, a report will show today.

The Rose Review, commissioned by the Treasury, will for the first time demonstrate the scale of the barriers facing women who want to set up on their own.

The review, led by Alison Rose, an RBS executive, was inspired by The Daily Telegraph’s Women Mean Business campaign, which has highlighted the funding gap faced by female entrepreneurs.

If women were able to start businesses at the same rate as men, there would be an additional 1.1 million female-led companies in the UK, the review’s findings will show.

The Treasury will announce a range of measures tomorrow in response to the review and as part of its pledge to help 600,000 more women start up their own businesses by 2030.

Banks and investment funds will also be urged to sign up to a new Investing in Women Code to track the amount of funding they give female entrepreneurs.

The code will report on progress annually and suggest steps financial companies can take to close the funding gap for female entrepreneurs.

The review will also recommend the launch of new banking products aimed at women to provide extra flexibility for those juggling a business and childcare costs.

The Telegraph launched its Women Mean Business campaign a year ago to help break down the barriers female entrepreneurs face.

In September, Robert Jenrick, the Treasury minister, commissioned Ms Rose, head of RBS’S commercial bank, to lead the independent review into the challenges highlighted by the campaign.

Women-only funding teams were given £32 million in investment in

2017, while male-only teams received more than £5 billion, according to official figures from the British Business Bank.

Start-ups run by women receive just 0.5 per cent of the total invested by venture capital funds – its lowest level in a decade.

The Investing in Women Code is one of a range of measures the Government will make tomorrow to mark International Women’s Day.

Other measures will include action to protect women from “cyber flashing”, which refers to the practice of sending unwanted images of male genitals to women online or on their phones.

A Yougov survey last year showed 41 per cent of 18 to 36-year-old women had received such images, which they found threatening and distressing.

The move follows recent legislation to outlaw upskirting.

The Government will draw on recommendations by MPS on the women and equalities committee, which has called for “a new law on image-based sexual abuse which criminalises all non-consensual creation and distribution of intimate sexual images”.

The changes will be included as part of a new version of the Government’s violence against women and girls strategy.

Ministers will also commission research into “what links exist between consumption of online pornography and harmful attitudes towards women and girls”.

It will also introduce a statutory code of practice for employers on sexual harassment.

‘The Investing in Women Code is one of a range of measures to mark Women’s Day’