Women-led high-growth enterprise taskforce meeting minutes: 13 September 2023
Updated 1 February 2024
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Attendees
Taskforce members
- Anne Boden MBE (Chair), Starling Bank
- Alex Depledge MBE, Resi
- Sam Smith, finnCap Group
- Zandra Moore, Panintelligence
- Emma Sinclair MBE, EnterpriseAlumni
- Judith Hartley, British Business Bank
- Check Warner, Ada Ventures
- Helen Steers, Pantheon
- Jan Putnis, Slaughter and May
Secretariat, analysts and other support staff
- Teena Lyons, Starling Bank
- Gillian Unsworth, Equality Hub, Cabinet Office
- Sue Beaumont-Staite, Equality Hub, Cabinet Office (Secretariat)
- Paul Williamson, Equality Hub, Cabinet Office
- Kevin Mantle, Equality Hub, Cabinet Office (Secretariat)
- Sophie White, PWC
- Leah Shearer, Private Secretary, Minister for Women
Apologies
Taskforce members
- Angela Scott, TC BioPharm
- Deepali Nangia, Speedinvest
- June Angelides MBE, Samos
Secretariat, analysts and other support staff
- Francis Evans, Department for Business & Trade
- Barbara Collins, Equality Hub, Cabinet Office
Summary of actions
1) Judith Hartley agreed to draft a paragraph/narrative for the report on where there might be opportunities for developing a new financial instrument or doing further research on late stage funding gaps (before 20 October 2023).
2) Secretariat to liaise across government to feed in recommendations and get views once the outputs are finalised.
3) Secretariat to identify and speak to AI (artificial intelligence) leads in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to get more detail on government direction and action.
4) Check Warner to link up the Secretariat with her contact in DSIT on the AI marketing campaign and also to look for opportunities for taskforce engagement at the November AI conference.
5) Helen Steers to reach out to the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) who already do lots on diversity and hold regional awards to discuss best practice, role models and engagement in this area.
6) Helen Steers agreed to reach out to Level 20 to discuss their goal of at least 20% of senior positions in private equity being held by women.
7) All members: The Chair asked members to let her and the Secretariat know what action or support they might be able to drive forward around best practice in Universities.
8) Check Warner to follow up her idea for behavioural guidance on parental leave being in the IiW Code for VCs.
9) Jan Putnis agreed to lead on scoping options for asking investment committees of regulated firms to certify that their decision making processes complied with the Equality Act. Jan Putnis and Check Warner to work together to prepare options and narrative for the report (prior to 20 October 2023).
10) All: Chair highlighted that the report now needs to be redrafted based on all comments with the redraft completed and sent to the Secretariat by latest 20 October 2023. This includes all ‘outputs/asks’ being finalised and worked up in detail. It was agreed that members would need to identify in their outputs exactly which org/stakeholder body etc would be responsible for picking up any actions.
Discussion items
1. Welcome from Chair, Minutes and Actions
No comments. Majority of actions completed from last month. The Secretariat can follow up any outstanding actions with members.
2. Current state of play with report (Chair)
Anne Boden discussed possible amendments to the current draft of the report and proposed outputs, including strengthening its economic focus and the consideration of AI technologies. Anne Boden also discussed the structure of the report and its key themes.
Alex Depledge keen for the report to have 3 or 4 stronger outputs rather than a large number of smaller ones.
Judith Hartley spoke about financial instruments and where there might be new opportunities for further work including new research focusing on what type of debt funds would add benefit to women high-growth entrepreneurs. Judith Hartley highlighted that more signatures to the Investing in Women Code is also needed.
Action: Judith Hartley agreed to draft a paragraph/narrative on these issues to go into the report (before 20 October 2023).
Action: Equality Hub/Secretariat will liaise across government to feed in recommendations and get views once the outputs are finalised.
3. Detailed discussion on current draft of report and outputs
Raising profile of women high-growth entrepreneurs and showcasing role models
There was an in depth discussion around highlighting women-led high-growth tech focused enterprises. Members discussed how the report should use the term ‘tech’ and that it should be clear it is talking about ‘tech enabled’ and/or ‘advanced manufacturing’ so not necessarily software companies, coding etc. Ensure the report is clear that it involves those women who could, for example, be involved in the healthcare industry but who have a business which is tech enabled - not just the consumer side.
Action: Secretariat to identify and speak to AI leads in DSIT.
Action: Secretariat to ensure AI and definitions around ‘tech’ are fed in and considered throughout the draft report.
Check Warner advised that she is speaking to policy officials in DSIT regarding a marketing campaign around AI with the aim of ensuring high-growth women entrepreneurs are included in this. Check Warner said she was also keen to look for opportunities for women around the AI Summit in November.
Action: Check Warner to link up Secretariat with her contact in DSIT on the AI marketing campaign and to look for opportunities for TF engagement at the November conference.
Action: Helen Steers to reach out to BVCA who do lots on diversity and hold regional awards to discuss best practice, role models and engagement in this area.
Increase diversity in investment teams and committees
Members agreed that diversity is poor in investment teams and the proportion of women here needed to be measured and/or tracked.
There was an in depth discussion around options for targets related to the above point and if/how these might work. Gillian Unsworth and Sue Beaumont-Staite highlighted the Lord Davies Women on Boards Review and the Female FTSE Review which had been successful using targets. Helen Steers mentioned an organisation called Level 20 which had set a goal for women to hold at least 20% of senior positions in private equity.
Action: Helen Steers agreed to reach out to Level 20 to discuss this further.
It was also noted that more LPs needed to be in a position to sign up to the Investing in Women Code (Check Warner is already following this up).
Address the late-stage funding gap
Judith Hartley set out that this was focused on the funding gap for enterprises which were growing fast but not fast enough to attract the right level of funding and investment.
Focus on this discussion moved to AI and tech enabled enterprises. Zandra Moore mentioned that year on year more women are founding AI based enterprises. Anne Boden highlighted the need for the report to focus on this element.
Provide early education and inspiration in schools, and drive female entrepreneurship at University level
Secretariat (Kevin Mantle) is looking at women-led entrepreneurship in higher education and exploring a number of options for further action particularly around transparency and high-tech spinouts.
Action: The Chair asked members to let her and the Secretariat know what action or support they might be able to drive forward on this area of work.
Sam Smith is working with the Scale Up Inst to prepare a letter/leaflet to go out to all schools, setting out which local women have set up high-growth enterprises.
Check Warner highlighted that it was difficult for many high-growth entrepreneurs to give time to go out to schools. Zandra Moore also mentioned that it is helpful for those women who are part way through their journey to go and speak to schools.
Childcare
Check Warner highlighted that childcare comes up as a continual barrier. It needs to be included in the report (Alex Depledge highlighted the importance of referring to ‘leave’ as ‘parental leave’ and not just ‘maternity leave’). There was a detailed discussion as to what the Private Sector could do here. Check Warner mooted the idea of including behavioural guidance around parental leave in the IiW code for VCs.
Action: Check Warner to follow up
Check Warner also suggested looking at options for asking investment committees of regulated firms to certify that their decision making processes comply with the Equality Act.
Action: Jan Putnis agreed to pick this up and discuss further with Check Warner. They would prepare a narrative on this and send it to the Secretariat for inclusion in the report before 20 October 2023.
4. Timelines and next steps
Chair highlighted that the report now needs to be redrafted based on all comments with the redraft completed by latest 20th October. This includes all ‘outputs/asks’ being finalised and worked up in detail. It was agreed that members would need to identify in their outputs exactly which org/stakeholder body etc would be responsible for picking up any actions.
Action: All members to finalise the outputs and send through to the Secretariat before 20th October.
Zandra Moore highlighted that she is working with Emma Sinclair to look at data collection around procurement and have linked up with an external organisation, however additional funding may be needed.
5. Next meeting
29 November 2023