PwC launches scaleup programme for women-led businesses

Professional services giant PwC has teamed up with business network Blooming Founders to launch a programme for female-led scaleups.

Eight high-growth businesses founded by women have been chosen to take part in the Scale | Female Founders Programme.

Participants will work with PwC and Blooming to enhance their business pitch and increase commercial opportunities. They will have the chance to engage with potential investors, business leaders and decision makers from a raft of national brands.

The initiative is part of a wider series of Scale programmes from PwC, through which 100 scaleups have so far gone on to collectively raise over £120m in equity.

Scale | Female Founders is launching alongside PwC’s Tech She Can Charter – a commitment signed by more than 50 organisations to increase the number of women working in tech by improving the education of young girls in STEM subjects.

Lu Li of Blooming Founders, a London-based company with a mission to support female founders, said: “According to a UN Women report, women-owned businesses receive only 1% of corporate procurement spend.

“This statistic is very disappointing and one of the main barriers that prevent female-founded businesses from growing. The launch event we held was a great success.”

She continued: “The pitches were fantastic and the room was packed with corporate business leaders. I was able to witness lively discussions between them and our cohort. My hope is that every startup in the cohort will be able to close a deal with at least one new corporate client as a result of our event.”

PwC’s women in tech leader Sheridan Ash, founder of the Tech She Can Charter, commented: “Innovation is all about connections, it’s a collaborative effort and it thrives in networks that contain a diversity of people, skills and types of organisations, small and large.

“The Scale | Female Founders programme’s key aim is to provide those connections supporting women to thrive and grow their business.”

She continued: “Our launch event provided a chance for all of those in the room to be a part of that ecosystem of support, from the PwC experts, the organisations that can be potential customers and suppliers or provide wonderful role models and mentors for female founders.”

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