UK government launches £25M fund for women entrepreneurs

Funding opportunity

The UK government has launched the Aspire Fund, a £25 million fund for women-led businesses, to be jointly funded by the public and the private sector.

The fund will provide equity finance and will also demonstrate to the business community what investment opportunities already exist in companies being run by women. It is managed by Capital for Enterprise Ltd. The fund is aimed at high growth businesses seeking between £100,000 and £2 million.

Minister for Economic Competitiveness and Small Business, Shriti Vadera, said, “Getting more women entrepreneurs is an economic issue not just an equality issue. If we were to match US levels of women’s enterprise there would be 900,000 new businesses in the UK.”

The Aspire Fund is one of a range of measures to promote women’s enterprise that were included in the government’s enterprise strategy published in March this year.