University of Bristol: Enterprising Women reopens for third year providing free business support for women
The NatWest funded programme will run from February to July 2023 and provide expert business support, workshops, mentoring and coaching, along with access to a valuable network of businesses, advisers and investors.
Enterprising Women is one of SETsquared Bristol’s initiatives to improve gender and minority ethnic diversity in tech and ensure that underrepresented groups get access to business support.
Kimberley Brook, Programme Manager at SETsquared Bristol, said: “We’re thrilled to be running Enterprising Women again with NatWest’s kind support. Since the programme started in 2020, we’ve supported 36 women entrepreneurs to launch and grow their businesses. To date, these businesses have raised a combined £6.5 million in funding and created over 150 jobs and we’re really proud of these results.”
Cheryl Gourlay, National Women in Business Manager at NatWest, said: “Despite more women setting up and scaling up in business, disparity between men and women remains so it is vital that we make entrepreneurship more accessible for women by increasing support locally, through relatable and accessible mentors and networks. This is why we’re delighted to support SETsquared for a third year to deliver Enterprising Women.”
NatWest’s Rose Review highlights that if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as men, up to £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy. This year’s Progress Report highlighted how resilient female entrepreneurs have been throughout the pandemic with more women than ever starting new businesses, making a bigger contribution to the UK’s economy and benefiting from extra investment.
Enterprising Women has supported a diverse range of businesses to date, with many innovations aiming to solve the world’s biggest problems such as food waste, microfibre pollution, stroke rehabilitation and online safety.
Dr Jenny Bailey, Co-founder and CEO of University of Bristol spin-out Ferryx, began her business journey on the Enterprising Women programme. Jenny has recently raised £300k seed capital for further development of Ferryx’s innovative solution to common gut problems.
She said: “As a novice to the world of business, Enterprising Women equipped me with vital business skills in the early stages of my company and set me on the right track towards raising investment. I met a fabulous group of dynamic, motivated, inspirational women who have been a great support network over the last two years.”
Dr Caroline Clark, University of Bristol alumna and Co-founder of Zebera, an open innovation platform for young people, said: “Enterprising Women highlighted and answered all of the early unknowns and questions you have when starting your own business and allowed time to follow those up with advisors and mentors. It enabled the joy of sharing those early experiences with others – 100% worth applying for.”
Enterprising Women 3.0 will culminate with a showcase and pitching event in Autumn 2023 to recognise the awardees’ achievements and launch their businesses.
Women with innovative business ideas or side hustles who would like to find out more about Enterprising Women 3.0 are encouraged to sign up to the online launch event on Thursday 10 November from 12-2 pm. The programme is open to women founders of any tech, tech-enabled and non-tech businesses. Apply by midnight on 8 December 2022.