British Business Bank Commits £1m to Women Founders with Angel Academe Fund
Britain’s government-backed economic development bank has challenged one of the world’s most enduring business problems, using an initial £1 million to invest in partnership with Angel Academe in women-led businesses across the United Kingdom.
British Business Bank’s capital, announced today, will sit alongside private equity raised by Angel Academe and its EIS fund, managed in partnership with crowdfunding-turned-fund-manager SyndicateRoom. The vehicle invests exclusively in high-growth companies with a single female founder, writing seed checks and Series A. The first deals under the new arrangement are expected before the end of June.
The headline figure may look modest compared to the figures surrounding the broader business market, but the mark is anything but. Women founders in the UK still receive less than two per cent of all money spent, a stubborn figure that hasn’t changed in a decade despite a procession of well-intentioned initiatives, codes and promises. Angel Academe was a founding signatory of the Investing in Women Code, and today’s commitment marks one of the strongest steps from the federal agency to put taxpayer-backed money where the talk has long been.
For Angel Academe’s portfolio which already includes Béa Fertility, a home pregnancy platform, transparent provenance goods and consumer data privacy business Data Wøllet, the participation of the British Business Bank amounts to a sound stamp of approval. Institutional fees tend to follow institutional fees, and the bank’s imprimatur can be more important to a fund’s fundraising efforts than the check itself.
Graham Schwikkard, SyndicateRoom’s chief executive officer, was not clear on this thesis. “It’s not a lack of talent, it’s a lack of access,” he said. “This £1m is not just capital, it’s a signal to the market that women-led businesses are one of the most untapped assets in the UK right now. We’re looking at the following companies that are defining the sector that others are missing.”
Sarah Turner, who founded Angel Academy and serves as CEO, did the same thing. “We don’t have a pipeline problem, we have a funding problem,” he said. “By partnering with the British Business Bank, we are able to put more money into the hands of women who are shaping the future of healthcare, data, and commerce.”
Nancy Liu, chief investment officer at British Business Bank Investments, framed the commitment in terms of growth rather than just a question of equity. “The gender investment gap is not just an equity issue, it is also a barrier to potential growth and innovation in the UK,” she said. “Women founders are still heavily funded and the British Business Bank aims to open up opportunities across the UK by ensuring that a diverse range of entrepreneurs get funding, including female founders.”
The funding gap is most pronounced in technology and health care, where ticket sizes are larger and money power higher — and where, perhaps not coincidentally, the lack of female check writers on the other side of the table has been most criticized. Whether £1 million of public money proves the catalyst for beneficial change, or just another data point in a long-running debate, will depend on what the bank chooses to do next.
The Angel Academe EIS Funds are part of SyndicateRoom’s stable of tax-free investment vehicles, which also include the Carbon13 SEIS Fund, the Access EIS Fund and the SR Carry Back EIS Fund. SyndicateRoom has now invested heavily in over 200 British businesses since its launch.
