Female-led businesses still face a funding gap

Published on: May 3, 2025

By ANNE ASHWORTH

Updated: 21:50 BST, 3 May 2025

Female entrepreneurs still face huge barriers trying to finance ventures, a new report reveals this week.

Discrimination against mid-life women is thwarting their ambition and depriving the economy of as much as £250 billion, the study found.

Women starved of bank finance or venture capital funds are forced to rely on savings or remortgage. So just 19 per cent of startups are led by women. Trinny Woodall, boss of make-up brand Trinny London, is among those to speak out.

‘Fundraising wasn’t easy at first. I often was the only woman in the room,’ she said. Some male investors could not see the potential as they were not the target market for cosmetics.

Speaking out: Trinny Woodall is founder of make-up brand Trinny London

Woodall set up the firm in her kitchen in 2017, selling her home to obtain funding. The brand, which focuses on mid-life women, is now pushing for annual sales of £75 million.

The report was compiled for HSBC by a network for mid-life women called Noon led by writer Eleanor Mills. It found 69 per cent of mid-life female entrepreneurs got going with savings or homes loans against 4 per cent from individual ‘angel’ investors, 3 per cent from bank loans and 2 per cent from venture capital.

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Female-led businesses still face a funding gap

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Female-led businesses still face a funding gap