Why So Few? The Case for Backing More Female Founders

Founded by a team of industry veterans— Jim Odell, Justin Urquhart Stewart, Paul Newsham, Martin Taylor, Michael Mcdowell, and Tony Backhouse, Regionally Ventures is committed to bridging the funding gap for high-growth regional businesses across the UK. With 70p of every £1 traditionally invested in London, regional businesses represent a valuable, yet often overlooked, segment of the market.

It is no secret that female founders remain significantly underrepresented when it comes to raising investment. We’ve written about it numerous times. Recent UK figures show that less than 3% of venture capital goes to all-female founding teams. And when you factor in geography, the picture becomes bleaker. Outside the London bubble and the numbers are lower still.

At Regionally Ventures, our team works with a wide range of founders from across the UK, and it is clear that brilliant ideas and strong businesses are not confined to any one region or demographic. But time and again, we see the same patterns: well-run, investable businesses led by women often miss out on funding, not because the fundamentals are weak, but because they are overlooked or underestimated.

The Startup Coalition’s latest report (Girls Just Wanna Have Funding, May 2025) lays out the scale of the problem. Just 13% of all-female founding teams run high-growth enterprises. Only 18 female founders have built unicorns in the UK – compared with 115 male founders. And even when women-led businesses do secure investment, the amounts raised are often significantly smaller.

None of this points towards a lack of talent—quite the opposite in fact. There is growing evidence that women-led businesses deliver strong returns. So the issue lies not in capability, but in access.

Our approach is simple. We back businesses with potential – wherever they’re based and whoever is leading them. That might sound obvious, but in the current funding landscape, it is still surprisingly uncommon.

Through The Regional Way, our advisory service led by Tony Backhouse and his team, we work with businesses to prepare them for investment, and that includes many female founders looking to grow, hire, and scale.

If you're a female founder looking to take the next step, or know someone who is, we’d welcome the conversation.

If you share our vision for unlocking regional potential, we’d love to hear from you.