British Business Bank commits £1m to tackling gender funding gap

The British Business Bank has committed an initial £1m to co-invest with Angel Academe, a founding signatory of the Investing in Women Code. 

Investing in Women Code is a commitment to support the advancement of female entrepreneurship in the UK by improving female entrepreneurs’ access to tools, resources and finance from the financial services sector. 

The British Business Bank’s capital will be used alongside Angel Academe’s private investors and EIS fund to invest into startups at seed to Series A stages. 

The funds, managed by SyndicateRoom in partnership with Angel Academe, invest exclusively in high-growth companies with at least one female founder. The first investments from this commitment are expected to begin in Q2 2026.

Female founders in the UK receive less than 2% of all venture capital – this commitment is designed to address this disparity and support more female founders.

“The gender investment gap isn’t just a matter of equality – it’s also a barrier to potential growth and innovation in the UK,” says Nancy Liu, senior investment manager at British Business Bank Investments.

“Female founders remain significantly underfunded and the British Business Bank aims to unlock potential across the UK by ensuring diverse entrepreneurs have access to finance, including female founders. The partnership with Angel Academe will help address this disparity whilst supporting the development of high growth smaller businesses across the UK.”

The funds have already invested in companies including Béa Fertility, a digital fertility platform; Provenance, which provides supply chain transparency technology; and Data Wøllet, a consumer data privacy platform.

In March, the UK government launched a programme to support women and girls in entering the tech industry.