IWD 2025: Funding isn’t enough, we need to talk about ownership

Over the past year, we've seen a real push for female founders to get the funding they deserve, with the UK investment minister, Poppy Gustaffen, urging investors to create a more "inclusive economic landscape" at a 2024 funding launch event.

In the UK in 2024, 37 new VC firms signed up to the Investing in Women Code, committing to backing more women-led businesses. A £255 million Investment in Women Taskforce fund to support female founded or led businesses was also launched, backed by Barclays and Morgan Stanley. 

This is all progress towards improving the terrible state of the venture capital landscape for women. In 2024, startups founded solely by women received just 2% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in theUS - showing no change from the previous year. In Europe, all-female teams secured just 2% or less of VC funding.

More conversations than ever are happening about closing the gender investment gap. However, from my personal experience as a female founder, this is only half the picture.

Over the years, I've started everything from a vintage clothing business reselling pre-loved festival outfits, to a FairTrade fruity ice pop brand that ended up on supermarket shelves. Later, I co-founded a VC-backed app that let tenants review rental properties - similar to a Trustpilot for renters.

Through all of this, I learned that while funding gets you started, what really keeps you moving forward is the team behind you. And in the early days, when cash is tight, sharing equity is often the best way to attract and retain staff.

Funding goes hand-in-hand with equity sharing to build a sustainable business, but it's something many founders don't think about enough in the early days.

Out of the 5.49 million SMEs in the UK, only 19,990 run tax-advantaged company share schemes - less than 0.5% of businesses taking advantage of something that could help them scale.

And within this minority is another - Men are twice as likely as women to be part of a company share scheme.

Analysis by Vestd shows that for every 100,000 businesses with a share scheme, you can add £1bn to the economy - this could mean life-changing financial gains for employees, allowing them to invest in their futures and possibly their own business. One of our customers' share schemes allowed most of his team to pay off their mortgages.

We need more founders, especially female founders, to be aware of the power of equity from day one.

At Vestd, we talk a lot about the power of the 'ownership effect' - the idea that when people have a real stake in a business, they're more engaged and motivated. This could be massive to help female founders attract and retain the talent they need to grow their business from a great idea.

It's worrying that women continue to be left behind when it comes to share schemes. Reviewing eligibility criteria and ensuring share schemes are offered to all employees, not just those in higher-paying roles, are all actionable steps that companies and policymakers can take to ensure that women have the same opportunities to build wealth.

This year's International Women's Day theme is 'accelerate action', which we can do by making equity part of the inclusion conversation.