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New £635m pool to help female-led firms overcome barriers to capital
The Observer
|January 04, 2026
Despite offering higher returns on investment, women entrepreneurs struggle to find backing. A new fund aims to fix that, writes Marine Saint
Debbie Wosskow is the co-founder of Invest in Women Taskforce. Getty
(Getty)
Pauline Paterson, a founder of the successful skincare company Dr PawPaw, would have preferred to pitch to female investors.
The men Paterson encountered while attempting to raise money understood little about her business, and seemed more interested in her personal life. One group of investors asked Paterson and her co-founder (and husband) Johnny if the money they raised would fund their children’s private education. They eventually passed on the opportunity to invest. “Trying to break through to them was really difficult,” Paterson says.
Such experiences are familiar for firms led by women, and may explain why the UK has one of the lowest rates of female entrepreneurship in the developed world, lagging behind the US, Canada and the Netherlands.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 04, 2026-Ausgabe von The Observer.
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