The Invest in Women Taskforce has launched its Women Angel Investors report, in collaboration with Beauhurst, the database of the UK’s fastest-growing companies, and the UK Business Angels Association, demonstrating there is still a lack of female angel investors in the UK.
It does also show that there are some positives.
One is the number of female angels has risen by 60% since 2022, increasing from 5000 to over 8000. They have provided backing to approximately 6,500 high growth companies, including 2000-plus that are female founded.
And more than £4bn of equity deals now involve women angel investment in some form.
But the report noted there is still a long way to go when thinking about investment parity.
The proportion of women angels compared to men has seen little improvement, still only representing 14.1% of all angels.
The total level of angel investment has remained around £1.5bn since 2019.
With fewer female angels, this can impact investment into female led businesses more acutely – half (49%) of female angel investment went to women led businesses in 2024, compared to just 19% of male angel investments.
Angel investment is one of the most important sources of capital for high growth start and scale ups, but the data is clear – lack of female angels is translating to lack of investment in female led businesses.
The report breaks the data down into top sectors for female angels, the vast importance of tax relief schemes and the value of angel syndicates.
Comments