Innovate UK, the government-owned science and tech support organisation, has reversed a controversial decision to fund only half the projects included in a female founder competition.
The group had previously set aside £4m to provide grants to 50 women founders as part of its Women in Innovation awards. Last week, Innovate UK said just 25 of the more than 1,400 applicants had successfully secured the financial backing.
“As public funders, we must manage our budgets carefully,” Innovate UK said in a LinkedIn post. “The decision to only award this number was a mistake and we prioritised wrongly.”
Innovate UK confirmed that it will fund the full list of 50 female founders. “We apologise again for the concern and frustration that we have caused.”
The decision from Innovate UK followed a campaign of women tech founders, who called for reforms to the innovation agency.
A collective of women founders led by Becky Lodge, CEO of Startup Disruptors, called on the agency to fund the entire cohort.
The campaigners also called for Innovate UK to acknowledge its shortcomings and ultimately launch a redesigned award programme for women in tech.
“Women-led businesses are significantly underfunded in comparison to their male counterparts and we rely on a public body to exercise fairness and equity when it comes to distributing public money,” Lodge said.
Lodge also called for a public apology from Innovate UK CEO Indro Mukerjee to the “1,400 women who have spent – on average – 80 hours completing the onerous application process, only to receive inconsistent feedback from assessors”.