635 Million Euro Raised as Invest in Women Taskforce Exceeds Goal

By: WE staff | Wednesday, 10 December 2025

• The Invest in Women Taskforce has secured £635 million, exceeding its original £250 million target
• The funding is intended to support women-led entrepreneurship

The fund completed a far larger-than-expected round of the Invest in Women Taskforce at £635 million versus its initial goal of £250 million when it set out in 2024, more than double. This achievement indicates substantial progress in initiatives to advance investment into female entrepreneurship.

Nationwide and the British Business Bank have announced their intentions to be joining Barclays and M&G as anchor partners in the proposed £130 million first close of the Women Backing Women Fund of Funds, pending final terms and approvals.

The fund is managed by Bootstrap4F, and it already holds the title of being the largest female-led fund of funds globally and the first such initiative in the UK focused on channeling capital to female-founded businesses and gender-balanced venture capital teams.

As noted in the first Annual Report of the Taskforce, over £70 million was deployed in 2025 across 15 founders and funds, with an increasing pipeline showing further progress.

Aggregated altogether, the funding pool represents one of the most coordinated global efforts to expand investment opportunities for women entrepreneurs.

Yet despite this improvement, significant gaps persist. Analysis by Beauhurst and the Taskforce finds that businesses which are fully female-founded receive just 2 percent of all UK equity investment.

At current rates, parity between all-male and female or mixed-gender founding teams could take at least ten more years. The House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee raised similar concerns and requested that both Government and Industry do more to fund female entrepreneurs.

The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, spoke on this topic ahead of an event at Downing Street on the day of the report release. According to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, investing in female entrepreneurs aligns with all of the Government's economic priorities and reinforces their commitment to removing obstacles to starting and scaling businesses for female entrepreneurs.

Hannah Bernard, executive at Barclays and co-chair of the Taskforce, stated that there is a strong economic case for investing in female-led companies based on data showing higher returns on investment.

Additionally, Hannah also pointed to the fact that having greater gender balance in both investment committee membership and capital allocation will have a positive impact on overall returns.

Debbie Wosskow OBE, entrepreneur and co-chair of the Taskforce, noted that the progress of this fund demonstrates what is possible when you increase the level of investment in women-led businesses, but an overwhelming majority of venture capital in the UK still goes to all-male teams. She urged more investors to take part in addressing the gender funding gap.

The Taskforce is continuing to encourage institutional investors, pension funds, and corporates to help advance equality of investment opportunities across the UK.