Also trying to make angel investment easy for businesswomen to get involved which involves online training programme once completed they become and accredited angel • Why it’s important to invest in women founders: o Companies with gender-diverse executive teams are 25% more likely to have above-average profitability o Diverse teams are more innovative and creative, better at problem- solving and develop more sustainable companies o Female entrepreneurs more likely to invest in social causes and start businesses with a social mission o Women-led companies likely to be more capital efficient, we ask for less funding and do more with the funding we do get • Seeing grants for early stage business but funding for growing and scaling is either revenue loans or equity • Only 3p in every pound of equity goes to women founders in UK (2.6p 2023 Linc Scotland Report) • Only 14% of UK’s angels are women – this needs to change to support more women founders • In VC world only 10% of women have decision making roles • This contributes to lack of support for women funding in equity • Less than 6% women owned companies are equity backed • Women twice as likely to back women founders and for that reason we have a lot of underfunded sectors - women more likely to start companies in Retail, Health, Beauty & Wellbeing, Food and Drink, Creative Industries, Tourism etc and these are the sectors that angel groups tend not to back 3 • Challenges: o Early stage capital vital source of funding for economy – down 47% since 2022...