HMT commissioned Alison Rose (CEO of Natwest) to lead an independent review of female entrepreneurship. The review shed renewed light on the barriers faced by women starting and growing businesses and identified ways of unlocking this untapped talent. The report (published in March 2019) and the Government response set out the steps being taken to help achieve the ambition of increasing the number of female entrepreneurs by half by 2030 (equivalent to nearly 600,000 additional female entrepreneurs).
The recommendations of the review are monitored by the Rose Review Board. The BVCA is a member of this board and this progress report from March 2020 highlights recent achievements. The BVCA, and a number of our members, are also members of the Rose Review Council. This group is working together to publish guidance and support the work of the review.
In February 2021, the Rose Review Council, in partnership with the Investing in Women Code (see below), Diversity VC and Diversio, published ‘’Guidance and best practice: examples for VCs and institutional investors’’, a document created by leading investors and professionals within the venture community as a resource to help drive greater diversity in across the investment industry. Further details are available in the press release here.
The Rose Review recommended that The Investing in Women Code be created and adopted which commits all financial institutions to the principles of gender equality and transparent reporting of gender funding data. Further details are available here along with the list of 70+ signatories, which includes many VC firms.