Female Leadership at the Future Fabrics Expo

When 98% of female-led businesses DO NOT get VC investment, perhaps we need to reassess investment diversity, not women in business

Harriet Fletcher-Gilhuys and Tamara Cincik at the Future Fabrics Expo with the Great British Wool Revival showcase and Fashion Roundtable.

This week we again attended The Sustainable Angle’s Future Fabrics Expo, now in its 15th year, at Magazine, London, where we showcased the work we have done on The Great British Wool Revival and Fashion Roundtable. In two days we saw over 2000 visitors, alongside over 150 innovative organisations, we heard from over 80 speakers.

Nina Marenzi and Amanda Johnson have grown this event into a globally recognised event, which aligns values, thought leadership and positive solutions. The transition to a decarbonised supply chain, scaling of sustainable solutions, where organic and regenerative farming, leads to regenerative fashion, all working in harmony with the planet. This was all on show in a space where connection, collaboration and community seemed its most forward-thinking.

Information wall at The Future Fabrics Expo

Nettle fibre making workshop at the Future Fabrics Expo, led by the team behind The Nettle Dress Film

In many ways this symbiotic relationship between planet, people and profit, not only aligns with the Fashion Roundtable ethos, itself a female-led business, as we develop our research on regenerative farming, fashion and fibre sovereignty, and policy work on UK manufacturing as a solution to localised economies and value chains; it also embodies King Charles iii’s philosophy of Harmony, which sees: “sees everything in nature as interconnected, including ourselves. This means taking a holistic approach to the challenges facing our planet, and looking to solve these challenges by working with nature, rather than against her.”

And it is the “her” in that sentence which is interesting as did you know that female-led businesses are only raising 2% of the capital that male-led businesses do? Yes you read that correctly, for every 98 men, 2 women raise investment as founders from VC, the standard way for private companies to seek capital for their brands. 

The British Business Bank’s Small Business Equity Tracker Research reported that in 2023 all-female founder teams raised 162 deals worth just £232m, while all-male founder teams raised 1,413 deals worth £6.5bn. The average deal size for the all-female teams was £1.4m and for the all-male £4.6m. Furthermore, these disparities appear to apply to follow-on rounds and bear no relation to sector variations. It’s a strong and persistent pattern. Research published this month shows an increase in angel investment in female-led business. 26% of businesses backed by angel investors were led by all-female founders, up from 12% in 2019. According to the British Business Bank’s Small Business Finance Markets 2024/25 report, estimates of female-led businesses range from 17% to 30% of the UK’s small business population. Yet we know that SMEs make up 98/99% of the UK fashion industry. Clearly there is a mismatch in value, in investment and in most importantly perhaps, networks (to finance).

Since 2019 the Department for Business and Trade has annually published data alongside The Investing in Women Code, as a landmark government-led initiative in response to the Rose Review’s findings that a lack of funding was one of the most significant barriers to women seeking to effectively scale a business. This has grown, both in terms of signatories, and investment, but a rise in the last decade is still far from gender and financial parity.

“UK Finance is proud to be a delivery partner of the growing Investing in Women Code, alongside many of our members signatories. While the data is showing reassuring signs of improvement, there is still lots more to do. UK Finance and our members will continue to collaborate and support the Investing in Women Code and the Invest in Women Taskforce and its accompanying Ecosystem Working Group in order to drive forward this important agenda,“ David Raw Managing Director, Commercial Finance, UK Finance.

Why is this so important?

Because without investment, you cannot raise the funds to build your dreams: either as a Not for Profit looking at Foundation funding, a researcher looking at academic funding, or a profit making enterprise seeking angel or VC investment. Funding and childcare are the two biggest problems stopping women from growing successful businesses. The childcare issue is huge for all women who decide to have children in employment and is even bigger for women who start businesses. The evidence demonstrates that there are just fewer women at every stage but at the stage of raising growth capital there’s a 305% difference between men and women.

So what are the solutions:

Mentoring:

Mentors, coaches and role models can help open doors for female founders, providing new pathways into the equity finance networks. In doing so, they can help give female founders the confidence, information, and relationships that will help them secure the investment they need to scale. Having access to mentors and role models is even more important in parts of the country where access to equity finance is thinner, for example, outside of London. Join female-focused networks like Female Founders Alliance, Women Who Tech, or Springboard. I was a part of the Fabian Women’s Network Mentoring Scheme and this for me was life changing. I saw my buddy Shamshia Ali only this week and constantly connect with an ever-growing network of brilliant women via our events and Whatsapp groups, where the hive mind can consistently answer all our queries. I am super-proud of our several MPs, many councillors, business and academic leaders too.

Networks:

Strengthening venture capital markets outside London is therefore key, and in this regard, the British Business Bank is currently rolling out its £1.6bn Nations and Regions Investment Funds to drive more finance – particularly equity – to small businesses across the UK.

Training:

This is such an important part and makes a difference to very early stage thinking about career choices as an entrepreneur as well as aspirations about whether you can get to the CEO role. This needs to start early and in primary schools – a very high percentage of 11-18 year olds cannot name a single female entrepreneur - and this needs to change to drive ‘you can’t be what you can’t see.

I am constantly amazed that fashion design students I mentor are not taught accounts, business skills and how to do their tax returns as part of their university course work, yet they are being taught to be a designer, primarily therefore to run their own business. This seems a core skill to me, which is vital to running your business and understanding when you are in profit, how to price your time and the difference between net and gross which can make or break you.

Here are some UK Networks for Women in NFP / Social Impact

Charity Women’s Network — Peer support, events, and mentoring for women working in UK charities.

Women in Social Enterprise (WISE) — Community of female leaders driving social impact businesses and charities.

ACEVO Women Leaders — Membership body for female CEOs and senior leaders in charities and social enterprises.

Clore Social Leadership — Training, fellowships, and networks for women in NFP leadership roles.

Social Enterprise UK (SEUK) — Includes networking and accelerator opportunities for female-led social ventures.

UK Networks for Women in Business & Startups

AllBright — Premium women’s club and networking community with London spaces, focused on entrepreneurship.

Everywoman — Business-focused network offering awards, mentoring, and leadership programs for women across all sectors.

Female Founders Alliance (FFA) — Supportive startup accelerator and community for female founders.

Women in Business Network (WIBN) — Local UK networking chapters for female professionals and entrepreneurs.

Female Founders Forum (by The Entrepreneurs Network) — Publishes reports and hosts events for women founders.

Bloom UK — Mentorship and leadership program for women in marketing, advertising, and communications.