Female-founded businesses receive 2% of venture capital funding (British Business Bank, 2023) which means all-female founded teams receive 2p for every £1 of equity investment (British Business Bank, no date) demonstrating a gender investment gap. The UK’s entrepreneurial landscape features 250,000 businesses led by ethnic minorities and provide an economic contribution of £25 billion to the UK’s Gross Value Added (CREME et al., 2020). Enterprise Research Centre (2018) report that UK immigrants and ethnic minorities are twice as likely to be early-stage entrepreneurs compared to their White British counterparts. However, an entrepreneur’s ethnicity impacts their success rate of receiving venture capital with all-ethnic teams receiving an average of 1.7% of venture capital investment at different stages between 2009-2019 (Brodnock, no date). For example, Black female entrepreneurs received 0.02% of the venture capital investment between 2009-2019 (Brodnock, no date). Additionally, female entrepreneurs of an ethnic minority experience many challenges and the biggest disparities (British Business Bank, 2020) such as gender discriminative cultural attitudes (Maharjan et al., 2025) and consumer racism (Surangi, 2022). In the last 10 years there has been no improvement in the investment female founders have received (British Business Bank, 2023), suggesting that current and previous interventions have not proven successful. 

Hence, this research will adopt a sequential mixed methods and interdisciplinary approach to examine the gender and ethnicity gaps in UK entrepreneurship and the role of interventions in addressing disparities and inequalities.

References:

• British Business Bank (2020) Alone together: Entrepreneurship and diversity in the UK. [online] Available at: https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/about/research-and-publications/alone-together-entrepreneurship-diversity-uk(Accessed: 10 February 2026).
• British Business Bank (2023) British Business Bank report reveals no improvement in the share of venture capital investment to female founder teams over the past decade. [online] Available at: https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/press-release/british-business-bank-report-reveals-no-improvement-in-the-share-of-venture-capital-investment-to-female-founder-teams-over-the-past-decade/  (Accessed: 10 February 2026).
• British Business Bank (no date) Unlocking the potential of diverse entrepreneurs – Factsheet. Available at: https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/about/research-and-publications/unlocking-the-potential-of-diverse-entrepreneurs-factsheet (Accessed: 10 February 2026).
• Brodnock, E. (no date) Diversity Beyond Gender. The State of the Nation for Diverse Entrepreneurs. Extend Ventures. [pdf] Available at: https://info.lse.ac.uk/staff/divisions/equity-diversity-and-inclusion/Staff-networks/EMBRACE/assets/documents/Diversity-Beyond-Gender-Nov-20-1.pdf  (Accessed: 10 February 2026).
• Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME), Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) and Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) (2020) Unlocking opportunity: The value of ethnic minority firms to UK economic activity and enterprise. [pdf] Available at: https://www.enterpriseresearch.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Unlocking-Opportunity_FSB-Report-.2020.pdf (Accessed: 10 February 2026).
• Enterprise Research Centre (2018) Minorities and immigrants ‘twice as entrepreneurial as white Britons’ [online] Available at: https://www.enterpriseresearch.ac.uk/minorities-and-immigrants-twice-as-entrepreneurial-as-white-britons/(Accessed: 10 February 2026).
• Maharjan, A., Nazir, M.A., Roomi, M.A., (2025) Exploring the intersectionality of ethnicity, gender and entrepreneurship: a case study of Nepali women in the United Kingdom. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship. 17 (2): 163–192. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJGE-01-2024-0009 (Accessed: 10 February 2026).
• Surangi, H.A.K.N.S. (2022) Are Gender and Immigration a Double Disadvantage? Exploring the Experiences of Sri Lankan Female Immigrant Entrepreneurs in London, United Kingdom. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 9(2), pp. 199-215. Doi: https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/1159 (Accessed: 10 February 2026).

This author is supported by the Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Nottingham (UKRI Grant No. EP/S023305/1).