Press Release

Generation Z and millennials are helping to close the gender funding gap while ethnic minority-led companies are seeing higher female representation, according to the findings of The Gender Index (TGI) 2023, which is sponsored by law firm Shoosmiths. 

The ambition of TGI is to help create a more equal future by providing a clear and accurate picture of the disparity between male and female led businesses, by benchmarking the current level of activity undertaken by companies across the UK which are owned or led by female founders.

The report found the proportion of female-led companies accessing external capital was higher in younger age groups of Generation Z and millennials, with a national average of 21.7 percent active female-led companies - an increase of 25 percent against all other types.  

Meanwhile, Ethnic minority-led companies had slightly higher female representation in leadership roles (19.3 percent and 19.2 percent) than in active female-led companies (16.8 percent and 17.2 percent).

The data for 2023 also details continued progress in women establishing new businesses, with 17.3 percent of all UK companies headed by females, up by 0.5 percent from 16.8 percent in 2022.

Created by the leading data analytics platform mnAi, TGI is AI-powered research of all 4.5 million active companies which accurately measures the number of female-led companies and their impact on the economy. 

An added layer that the mnAi analysts have built into this year’s data is identifying company leadership among underrepresented groups and young people. 

Shoosmiths’ support of TGI builds on the success of its spHERe network, which aims to support female founders and venture capitalists. The goal of spHERe is to help women find success through creating a forum for meaningful networking opportunities which address the disparities that exist between female and male entrepreneurs scaling and funding businesses.

This is the second year that Shoosmiths has sponsored TGI, having first supported its launch in 2022. Through the partnership, Shoosmiths aims to play its part in identifying where there are gender funding gaps and improving the quality of data and analysis available, in a bid to create greater gender equality in the access to funding for female founded business throughout their life cycle. 

The key findings of the Gender Index 2023 report are:

• Generation Z female founders are attracting more external capital than any other age group and are closing the gender gap 
• Rise in ethnic minority female-led companies in leadership roles 
• Out of the cities and regions, London regains its status for having the highest proportion of female-led companies and securing the most funding in 2021/22 and 2022/23 
• Wales outperforms the rest of the UK for female-led fast-growth companies 
• Northern Ireland enjoyed an unprecedented surge in external funding, more than the rest of the UK and has the highest proportion of female-led, ethnic minority-owned companies 
• Scotland maintains its position in the top two for the highest proportion of female-led fast growth companies 

Commenting on the findings of the Gender Index report 2023, Shoosmiths’ corporate partner and founder of the spHERe network, Helen Burnell, said: “We are very proud of our sponsorship of The Gender Index and to see the impact of the report go from strength to strength over the last year. 

“While the data shows we still have a long way to go to close the funding gap its very encouraging to that more young women and ethnic minorities are raising capital and running female-led companies than ever before. The data shows the importance of benchmarking on a regular basis as a key factor to understanding and addressing the funding gap for female founded and led companies is the data that sits behind the deals.”

To read The Gender Index 2023 report click here.