A government-sponsored scheme to boost funding for women founders has encouraged just 4% more investment deals for female-founded companies than the industry average.
The latest annual report on the Investing in Women Code from the Department for Business and Trade found that over two-thirds (68%) of VC deals made by its signatories last year were for male-founded companies.
The market average for the share of deals going to companies with women founders is 28%, compared with 32% for signatories of the code.
This is a smaller share than last year, during which 35% of deals from signatories went to women-founded companies.
The number of firms signed up to the code has, however, risen from 204 in 2023 to a little over 250.
The Investing in Women Code was founded in 2019 following findings from the Rose Review, which said lack of funding was one of the biggest barriers for female entrepreneurs.
The voluntary agreement commits signatories to improve women’s access to funding and annually report the gender breakdown of their investment activity to the government.
Signatories of the code include British Business Bank, British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association, UK Finance and the UK Business Angels Association.
“While some progress has been made across the venture capital sector to improve access to finance for female founders, there is still a huge amount more to do,” said British Business Bank CEO Louis Taylor.
“Which we can only achieve by working together to promote greater equity and inclusion to back innovation and economic growth across the UK.”
Jenny Tooth, executive chair of the UK Business Angels Association, noted that among angel investors, progress was more encouraging.
Tooth said that, for the first time, “deals in women founders had surpassed the number of deals in male founders” from the angel group signatories.
Read more: IWD: Data shows tech gender parity progress remains slow