Female powerhouses are fuelling Scottish economy

The number of visible, scaling female founded or co-founded businesses has surged by a staggering 81 per cent over the past year. These 139 powerhouses – including the likes of pizza disrupter Ooni, creative arts giant LS Productions, and life sciences firm Amici – now generate £1.5 billion in revenue and employ more than16,000 people.

These women-led firms are growing at twice the national rate, the new Female Founder Scottish ScaleUp Index shows.

The data is key: the government’s Pathways Report identified better reporting as critical for change. Our Index shows Scotland already ranks second in the UK for female scaleup growth, outperforming the national average in turnover and employment.

Scottish female-run, scaling firms presided over a 65 per cent uplift in turnover and a 48 per cent rise in employment last year. They already comprise 19 per cent of all visible scaling businesses in Scotland. They cross every sector, from food to professional services, wellbeing to hospitality, with 39 per cent in the industrial sectors and every region of Scotland – 47 per cent reside outside Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Eight in ten Scottish female entrepreneurs feel they have little business support, compared to 40 per cent of Scottish male-led firms. These companies want better access to funding; overseas market introductions and insights with specialised export funding; procurement opportunities, easier access to talent, including NXDs, alongside university R&D collaborations, to navigate the leap from scaling Scotland to global players.

While equity investment into these women-founded businesses jumped 80 per cent last year to £116.5 million, that money is being funnelled into a small pool. Of Scotland’s 139 scaling female-run firms, the lion’s share of that capital went to just around 20 businesses.

This leaves an enormous pipeline of female businesses bootstrapping, or relying on important bank finance, while their male counterparts find it far easier to tap the equity funding keg and deploy equity growth. Only 10 per cent of total Scottish scaling investment goes to female founded firms.

That's why the Pathways Pledge remains so vital in connecting investors with female founders. Pledge participants such as BGF, OCC Ventures (University of Edinburgh), Par Equity, and Scottish Enterprise, are leading the way in backing these scaling firms and it remains vital that not only they continue to do so but others dial up their focus, including in angel investment, as the opportunity is clear.

We also continue to need to rethink how our education system serves entrepreneurship as the Pathways report is focused on. Scaling female founders want to see a more entrepreneurial curriculum including a maths curriculum that reflects modern technology; better education on investment and funding; and enhanced accreditation for digital skills. Pathways Pledge members like AccelerateHER are key.

The potential scaleups of the future, such as carbon testing firm Agricarbon UK, make up brand Vieve and crop protection business Solasta Bio, can soar within a supportive ecosystem that the Pathways Pledge is building.

The opportunity is sitting right in front of us: let’s not waste it.

Irene Graham OBE, CEO, ScaleUp Institute