Women Backing Women
Encouraging more women to angel invest
Championing the UK’s women angel investors
Behind the Campaign
Women Backing Women is a campaign launched in 2022 by the Women Angel Investment Taskforce. The campaign is an initiative sprung out of the Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship to increase the number of women becoming angel investors and to expand the female angel ecosystem across the UK. The taskforce is led by Jenny Tooth OBE, Executive Chair of the UK Business Angels Association and Yvonne Greeves, Director of Women in Business at NatWest Group operates as co-chair.
The Women Backing Women campaign is a flagship project led by the Women Angel Investment Taskforce to inspire, educate and support women across the UK to become business angels and early-stage investors. By increasing the number of female angels, the campaign’s intention is that more female founders across the UK will have a better chance to access funding to scale their business, wherever they are based. This mission feeds into the Rose Review’s target to increase funding allocation to women in the UK and to create an environment which encourages and enables 600,000 more women to found businesses by the end of the decade.
The Women Backing Women campaign collaborates with angel investor groups and key ecosystem players already working on the ground across the UK, including in Wales, Scotland and the North, who know their regional and national landscape better than anyone else.
Women Backing Women Conference 2023
This conference is organised by UKBAA in partnership with the Women Angel Investment Task Force and the Women Backing Women campaign.
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Women Angel Insights: The impact of female angels on the UK economy
Women Angel Insights
Developed by Beauhurst, in partnership with UKBAA and supported by NatWest, this new report explores the impact of female angels across the UK
Download ReportThe latest data
The UK Business Angels Association and Beauhurst have joined together to explore the vital role women angel investors have in the UK. In a newly launched report, it is highlighted that more than 5,000 women are making angel investments in every nation and region in the country, helping to create over 10,000 jobs in the past decade.
£2bn total value of investment including woman angels in UK companies
Almost 25% of all companies backed by female angels, were female-founded
Just 14% of angel investors in the UK are women
Women angel investors have helped create over 10,000 jobs in the past decade
Women Angel Insights Report
The Women Angel Angel Insights: The impact of female angels on the UK economy report is a vital piece of research that demonstrates the huge contribution that female angel investors are making across the UK to building successful entrepreneurs in our economy.
“One of the key challenges we face is the continuing low proportion of female angel investors, which limits the pool of equity capital available to support entrepreneurial growth and innovation. Notably, our research and experience has shown that growing the number of female angels will directly increase the level of investment in female entrepreneurs.”
Jenny Tooth OBE, Chief Executive, UKBAA
Download InfographicAlison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship 2023
On 22nd February, 2023, the latest finds from the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship launched. The findings demonstrate significant progress and illuminate the many important initiatives that will continue across the early-stage investments space.
Women founded more than 150,000 new companies last year despite a more challenging economic environment. The resilience of female entrepreneurs is underlined by data which shows that female founders started more firms in 2022 than ever before. The figures are published today in the Rose Review Progress Report 2023, which sets fresh goals to provide record levels of support for female entrepreneurs and drive up the numbers of female angel investors.
The Report illustrates the advances made since the Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship was launched in 2019. More than twice as many companies led by women were created last year as in 2018.
However, the report sets out the importance of increasing the support available for female founders in the face of economic headwinds.




Spotlight video raising awareness of the EIS/SEIS schemes
An important new video has launched to enable many more women founders and investors across the UK to understand the benefits of the EIS and SEIS scheme.
Watch VideoEvents & Activities
Since the launch of the Women Backing Women campaign, there has been a flurry of activity across the UK. From workshops and educational sessions to networking and more, women across the regions have been spotlighting this incredible asset class. Many further events are planned for the coming months – stay tuned!
Pathways: A new approach for women in entrepreneurship in Scotland
This report seeks to change how we think about the under-participation of women in entrepreneurship, to more rapidly and effectively move our society away from its current extreme gender imbalance in this field of endeavour.
Read reportSpotlighting Leading Women Angels
Female angel investors have helped drive more than £2bn of investment in companies across the UK in the past decade. We are spotlighting some of the UK’s leading women angels who are making waves in early-stage investment.
Resources
From industry-leading reports to helpful guides and studies, we have drawn together a host of host of resources to underpin the importance of increasing the number women angels in the UK

Finding What Works
The Finding What Works report, undertaken by the British Business Bank in partnership with SQW, provides three clear, actionable, and evidence-based pathways for UK funds to improve diversity in venture capital investment.
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The Investing in Women Code 2023 Report
The Code was founded in 2019 as a landmark government-lead initiative in response to the Rose Review’s findings that a lack of funding continues to be one of the most significant barriers to women seeking to effectively scale a business.
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Investing Diversity Best Practice Guidance
The Angel Investing in Diversity Best Practice Guidance was developed by UKBAA to provide angels with actions that can be taken to support investment in diversity and strategies for good practice.
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The Rose Review Progress Report 2022
The Rose Review Progress Report 2022 on female entrepreneurship, was published on 28th February 2022 and sets out the full extent of progress made since the inaugural report published in 2019.
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Investing in Women Code Annual Report 2022
The Investing in Women Code report includes data collected by finance providers in 2021 and features the actions taken to support women entrepreneurs with the tools, resources and finance needed to achieve their goals.
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The Rose Review Progress Report 2022
The Rose Review Progress Report 2022 on female entrepreneurship, was published on 28th February 2022 and sets out the full extent of progress made since the inaugural report published in 2019.
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Investing in Women Code Annual Progress Report 2021
The Investing in Women Code is a commitment to support the advancement of female entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom by improving female entrepreneurs’ access to tools, resources and finance.
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The Barriers and Opportunities for Women Angel Investing in Europe
The aim of this research was to understand the common characteristics and drivers of women who do invest and to understand the barriers and challenges for women who do not invest.
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The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship
The first annual Rose Review report details the initiatives and actions taken to help tap into the huge and unrealised economic potential of female entrepreneurs in the UK.
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The Barriers and Opportunities for Women Angel Investing in Europe
The aim of this research was to understand the common characteristics and drivers of women who do invest and to understand the barriers and challenges for women who do not invest.
Find out moreThe Women Backing Women Community
The Women Backing Women campaign collaborates with angel investor groups and key ecosystem players working on the ground across the UK, including in Wales, Scotland and the North. The campaign is connecting and celebrating women angels across the UK.
Women Angel Investment Taskforce
The Women Backing Women campaign was launched by the Women Angel Investment Taskforce to tackle the lack of women engaging in angel investment.
The taskforce brings together key players from across the UK:
• Jenny Tooth OBE, UKBAA & Co-Chair Women Angel Investment Taskforce
• Deepali Nangia, Speedinvest and Alma Angels
• Helen Oldham, NorthInvest and Fund Her North
• Debbie Wosskow OBE, Allbright
• Shanika Amarasekara MBE, British Business Bank
• Rhian Elston, Development Bank of Wales
• Prof. Lynne Cadenhead, Women’s Enterprise Scotland and Mint Ventures
• Mary McKenna MBE, Angel Investor, Awaken Hub Northern Ireland
• Stephen Pegge, UK Finance
• Yvonne Greeves, NatWest and Co-Chair Women Angel Investment Task force
• Gurpreet Manku, BVCA
• Cate Poulson, BGF
How to get involved
If you would like to be part of this movement, get in touch. From hosting a networking or education event to how you can join an angel group, launch your own syndicate, or help spread the word on this important initiative – let’s work together.
Share your details below and how you would like to get involved and we’ll be in touch.