JP Morgan Private Bank and Beauhurst found in an annual report that since 2014 private investment in businesses founded, led or managed by women in the UK has tripled, reaching £4.01 billion today. This trend aligns with the broader high-growth ecosystem where private investment has risen from £5.21 billion in 2014 to £17.3 billion in 2023.
The report analysed 14,555 companies in the UK led by women, ranking the top 200 based on growth in sales and headcount. It included not only women-founded enterprises but also those that are led by women, have management teams consisting of at least 50% women or are majority owned by women. Eligible companies recorded a turnover of at least £5M in financial accounts filed between January 2023 and December 2023 and had at least 10 employees in the base year used for the growth calculation.
Since J.P. Morgan Private Bank’s inaugural report in 2021, the number of UK high-growth businesses has grown by 47.1% from 33,300 to 49,000 businesses. High-growth businesses are those that have met one of Beauhurst’s tracking triggers, such as securing equity investment or spinning out of an academic institution, which often indicate a company’s growth potential. Over this same period, the proportion of women-powered businesses also jumped, from 18.3% in 2021 to 29.7% in 2024.
“This surge in female entrepreneurship has transformed the UK’s scale up scene. By increasing both the number and proportion of women-owned enterprises, we’re also taking a crucial step towards improved gender parity”, said Maya Prabhu, Market Head – UK Domestic at J.P. Morgan Private Bank.
Among the top 200 women-powered businesses featured in the report, 13.5% have received investment from a Venture Capital (VC). This is a higher proportion compared to the overall women-powered businesses cohort in the UK.
In 2023, internet platforms were the leading sector for women-powered businesses based on the number of equity deals completed, with 396 deals. However, deals by women-powered
businesses only made up 28.1% of the total deals in the sector. Women-powered businesses remain a minority in this sector (28.8%) and the broader tech industry (15.9%). Increasing
the number of women starting and leading tech companies is crucial for achieving greater gender parity in investment, the report said.
Investors Seedrs and Crowdcude participated in the largest number of equity investment deals into women-powered businesses in 2023. US-based General Catalyst Partners topped the list as the most prolific investor in women-powered businesses based on the total value of deals participated in.
London-based Digital bank Starling, founded by Welsh entrepreneur Anne Boden, secured the top spot in this year’s list of 200 companies after doubling its sales to £507M in 2023 and significantly expanding its workforce across the UK.
Starling provides financial products, including a mobile-based current account that allows users to track their finances in realtime. It also provides its core platform, Engine by Starling, to the banking market as a SaaS product. In 2024, Romanian Salt Bank became the first neobank outside of Starling Bank to use Engine by Starling for its system.
Meanwhile, the analysis showed that challenges exists. Exit activity by high-growth companies in the UK declined significantly in recent years as businesses have experienced an extremely low liquidity environment. The total value of exits has dropped from £7.60 billion in 2022 to £3.32 billion in 2023. No women-powered company that exited in 2023 achieved an exit value high enough to appear on the ranking, reflecting the slowdown of exit activity across the high-growth ecosystem last year.