The Government has laid out a suite of policies to support the UK’s female entrepreneurs. We covered the Government’s efforts to support diversity in our blog last week. While the Future Fund’s diversity data is a step in the right direction, it is clear that there is still work to be done. In this week’s blog, we cover the launch of a new Female Ventures Fund, updates to the Government support schemes on offer, and highlights from our Members.
FEMALE FOUNDER HIGHLIGHTS
Here is a quick wrap up of this week’s news highlights, featuring some of our inspiring Members:
The Women’s Enterprise Policy Group (WEPG), which represents leading experts and academic leaders across the UK, is urging the Chancellor to give women’s enterprise a voice and a seat at the policy table. In a Bdaily article Prof Julia Rouse, co-chair of the WEPG is quoted as having said “developing gender-responsive policy for women requires our expertise - we can help analyse how COVID-19 is impacting women-led businesses, monitor policy impact and help shape and implement policies that work for women”.
Alternative investment fund manager Innvotec has launched a new fund to invest exclusively in female-founded enterprises. The Female Ventures Fund (FVF) is to invest in early-stage businesses founded or co-founded by women. The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) fund will also look to encourage more women into the venture capital space.
Julia Elliott Brown, our Member, and founder of Enter the Arena is running a series of podcast interviews with inspiring female entrepreneurs sharing their honest stories on equity fundraising. You can listen to the podcast series here.
June Angelides, our Member and founder of Mums in Tech, has been named in Forbes list of 25 Leading Black British Business People To Follow. You can follow June on Twitter here.
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
1. Summer Economic Update - Plan for Jobs 2020
The Chancellor presented his 'Plan for Jobs' to Parliament to outline how the government will boost job creation.
The plan includes:
A Job Retention Bonus that will be introduced to help firms keep furloughed workers;
A new £2 billion Kickstart Scheme of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people across the UK;
A total of £1.6 billion invested in scaling up employment support schemes, training and apprenticeships to help people looking for a job;
Bringing forward work on £8.8 billion of new infrastructure, decarbonisation and maintenance projects;
A temporary increase to the Nil Rate Band of Residential SDLT (Stamp Duty) from £125,000 to £500,000;
The rate of VAT applied on most tourism and hospitality-related activities will be cut from 20% to 5%; and
A new Eat Out to Help Out discount to encourage people to safely return to earing out at restaurants.
Laura Tenison, our Member and founder of Jojo Maman Bebe spoke to News 24 about the Chancellor's Summer Economic Update, welcoming the meal reduction plan. "The best thing for me is the midday meal because we desperately want people out of their homes with any PPE who wish to wear and enter our stores."
2. Launch of the Sustainable Innovation Fund
The Government has launched a £200 million package to help innovative businesses bounce back from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and keep their cutting-edge projects and ideas alive. The Sustainable Innovation Fund will help power the UK’s economic recovery and develop new sustainable opportunities for businesses while also helping the UK to meet its ambitions to cut carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050.
Businesses can apply for support through the Sustainable Innovation Fund here and find out more about the package here.
3. More start-up and innovative firms will be eligible to apply for the Future Fund
The Future Fund’s eligibility criteria have been changed. UK companies who have participated in highly selective accelerator programmes and were required, as part of that programme, to have parent companies outside of the UK will now be able to apply for the Future Fund. Find out more here.
4. Support for university research and innovation
The Government has announced 2 new packages to support research jobs and ground-breaking projects impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A new research funding scheme will open in Autumn to cover up to 80% of a university’s income losses from a decline in international students and around £280 million in funding will be made available to enable universities to continue their cutting edge research. Find out more here.
BARCLAYS SUPPORT AND OPPORTUNITIES
1. Female Founders Forum 2020 Digital Events
In light of COVID-19, we have been busily re-invigorating our 2020 Female Founders Forum event schedule. This year, we will be hosting a series of Webinars on key policy issues pertinent to our female founders to help support them through COVID-19 and beyond.
We are creating 7 virtual scale-up hubs for regions across the UK, including Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Cardiff, Southampton and Edinburgh. The virtual scale-up hubs will bring together aspiring and established female founders through inspiring and engaging stories and content.
We will keep you informed about the scale-up hubs and Webinars in our Newsletters. If you know any inspiring female founders in these regions, send them through to jess@tenentrepreneurs.org.
2. Virtual Event – with Nicky Goulimis (co-founder and COO of Nova Credit)
Nicky Goulimis, the Co-Founder and COO of Nova Credit will be joining Juliet Rogan, Head of Barclays High Growth and Entrepreneurs, for an informative discussion on how to rapidly scale and expand your business. In this session on Thursday 9 July at 5 pm, you’ll find out how Nova Credit went from light-bulb moment to a $50m Series B funding round, and learn more about Nicky’s experiences as a successful female founder. To sign up for this event, please register here.
3. Barclays Back to Business Programme
Barclays has launched a free toolkit to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK get back on their feet as they navigate the uncertainty created by COVID-19. The ‘Barclays Back to Business’ programme has been designed in partnership with the Cambridge Judge Business School and is open to all UK SMEs. The toolkit is designed to help business owners assess the overall health of their business, and create a tailored resilience plan for challenging periods. It is packed with practical tools including a working capital calculator, cash flow forecasts, and guidance on managing supply chain relationships.
Register your interest here. Cambridge Judge Business School will get in touch to confirm your place on the programme, including how to access the online platform, which launches on 22 June 2020. For more information, check out Barclays Back to Business Programme.
4. Barclays Coronavirus Support Hub
The Barclays coronavirus support hub provides the latest information, tools, and guidance to support businesses throughout the coronavirus pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook live events, and more information on how to access Government schemes. You can also download Barclays’ coronavirus checklist to support your business resilience planning throughout this period. There is also an updated FAQ section on this hub.