Events

In celebration of International National Women’s week, Funding Focus hosted a half day conference live from the London Stock Exchange on Thursday, 10 March 2022. The event was also streamed live online for our community outside of London.

The conference aimed to blaze an enduring path as we work to level the uneven playing field that female and under-represented founders face when it comes to raising capital.

We brought together successful entrepreneurs who raised funding, enterprising minds, investment gurus and sector experts who shared their experiences, nuggets of wisdom and helped raise awareness in the fight for fairer funding.

Over the half-day conference, we focused on why female and under-represented entrepreneurs face barriers in the investment world, discussed what approaches have worked, and helped to understand their routes to funding. By connecting and informing individuals, firms and industry bodies, we hope to continue to drive sustained commitment to progress.

We also made a BIG announcement!

Live from the London Stock Exchange we announced the launch of a new fund that will be listed in the premium segment of the Main Market on the London Stock Exchange. The fund will invest in entrepreneurial businesses where at least one of the founders is female and/or non-white ethnicity. We aim to break the inherent bias that is rife in the investment industry.

Please see our official announcement for more details and important regulatory information.

With the hit of the COVID19 pandemic, we decided to take the conference online and host a virtual event instead.

In 2020, the focus of the conference was slightly different. With the 2019 conference, we concentrated solely on the inequalities that female entrepreneurs faced. With the 2020 conference, we looked more broadly at the barriers experienced by entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds – whether that be in terms of gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

Founder of Funding Focus David Horne said:

“Looking back at the inaugural Funding Focus event on 25 November 2019 at the London Stock Exchange, beyond the fact that it was an amazing day, two things in particular spring to mind:

The inequalities faced by female founders are not confined to the UK. The social media posts around the conference in 2019 received engagement from people in 10 countries around the world – Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland and the USA. The comments made it clear that inequitable funding was a big issue for these other countries too.
This isn’t just about women versus men. That day I heard stories of people from all manner of diverse backgrounds who face the same uneven playing field.”

You can read David’s thoughts in full here.

The Funding Focus annual conference aimed to blaze an enduring path for female founders and address the unequal funding women receive from venture capital. The first annual conference took place on 25 November 2019 at the London Stock Exchange, where we brought together successful female entrepreneurs who have raised funding, enterprising minds, investment gurus and sector experts.

Venture capital investment in start-ups with female founders was increasing but progress was and continues to be very slow. At current rates, it will take 25 years (2045) for all-female teams to reach even 10% of all deals. We want to change this. By radically transforming the flow of funding for female-founded businesses, we can unleash a whole new stream of entrepreneurial activity to boost the UK’s economy.

Over the half-day conference, we focused on why women face barriers in venture capital, discussed what approaches have worked, and helped female entrepreneurs understand their routes to funding. By connecting and informing individuals, firms and industry bodies, we hoped to drive sustained commitment to progress and the outcome of this event was more than we expected.