Why is it so difficult for women to get business funding?

It is well documented that there are many barriers which women face when it comes to starting a new business. One of them is the ability to obtain funding for their new business ventures. For example, less than 2% of venture capital private investor’s funding in the UK goes to women only startups.

It is well documented that there are many barriers which women face when it comes to starting a new business.

Why is this? There are various reasons, but the underlying factor is probably societal biases and gender stereotyping. It is assumed that women lack the necessary skills for business entrepreneurship. They are seen as lacking the aggressive competitive traits for decision making and leadership, characteristics associated with men. In financial institutions men are dominant in numbers and positions of authority, and decision making thereby often excludes women.

It is not for the lack of innovative ideas, confidence or belief that women possess in starting their own business. It is the investor community that lacks confidence in them. How can this situation be changed? Research shows that policies that are intended to correct biases against women entrepreneurs tend to ignore inherent structural issues within society and businesses. For instance, it seems that women only targeted initiatives, such as women’s networking groups, only reinforce isolation of women from the male dominated business mainstream.

One initiative by Imperial College London is taking a new approach to tackle this problem.

One initiative by Imperial College London is taking a new approach to tackle this problem. It is one which other academic institutions or government might emulate to support and encourage women entrepreneurs. At Imperial College London, The Imperial Enterprise Lab run an annual five month educational programme from January to June called “WE Innovate”. This offers women training on the practical skills and tools they require to consider whether their proposed new business ideas have potential. They go on to learn to develop them to a completed business proposition and how to pitch it to investors. This coaching culminates in a competition held each June in which the women entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to an expert panel in the hope of receiving a share of a financial grant worth £30,000.

WE Innovate was created at Imperial College London so that women have a chance to put forward their business propositions on a level playing field.

© Wikimedia commons

This year’s cohort of WE Innovate businesswomen are proposing a diverse range of solutions to solve or address human and environmental problems. These three business ideas have been put forward specifically aimed at ameliorating health issues encountered by women:

The first is a wearable hormone biosensor that continuously tracks reproductive hormones in real time for those women undergoing IVF treatment. This device conveniently eliminates the need for women to attend a daily clinic for blood analysis and so improves cycle monitoring and personalizes treatments and hopefully would boost IVF success rates.

A second is to manufacture a non-invasive home test kit for women to identify the presence of endometriosis by analyzing biomarkers in menstrual blood. One in ten females suffer from endometriosis and it can be from seven to ten years before they get a successful diagnosis. This test kit could be a simple but effective solution to avoid worsening painful symptoms.

A third is the creation of the first blood plasma test which will predict whether a pregnant woman is at risk of giving birth pre-term. Again, this technique analyses clinically validated biomarkers in maternal blood from as early as the 12^th week of pregnancy. Each year one in ten babies are born prematurely leading to potential health complications for both mother and baby. This new technique could be a low cost solution to integrate in the care for women during pregnancy, alerting them of pre-term births.

The successful candidates for WE  Innovate this year were announced on the 5^th of June (see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nih2DsBVZjE).

WE Innovate was created at Imperial College London so that women have a chance to put forward their business propositions on a level playing field. Since its inception it has inspired, empowered and increased the number of women led startups, albeit on a small scale.

If you have a business idea which you would like to develop and would like more information from the Imperial Enterprise Lab, look at: www.imperialenterpriselab.com/programmes/we-innovate/