The richest women in UK tech and the fight for new funding

THE London tech scene has made great strides in diversity in recent years, but female industry leaders say it has a mountain to climb before anything close to gender parity is on the cards.

- Simon Hunt

Women tech founders and CEOs have amassed significant wealth, with the top 10 worth a combined £5 billion, an Evening Standard analysis can reveal, amid a flourishing of fresh ideas.

 Today, International Women’s Day, women make up more than one in 10 of the wealthiest Brits in tech. Denise Coates, founder of online gambling firm Bet365, heads the list, followed by Anne Boden, who set up challenger bank Starling, and Debbie Bestwick, founder of gaming developer Team 17.

But amid the fortunes that have been made by some, data suggests many other women in the industry still face disadvantages.

An analysis of last year’s gender pay reporting data found the mean gender pay gap was 21.6% among London’s most valuable tech unicorns, significantly higher than the UK average of 13.6%, and the average bonus gap was 43.1% against a UK average of 19.3%.

The Rose Review, a report into female entrepreneurship by NatWest boss Alison Rose, found more than a fifth of new business incorporations last year were female-led. But five in 10 female business leaders say access to funding has been difficult, compared with four in 10 men.

In America, research has found that just 2% of venture capital money goes to female-founded startups.

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