'Woman-powered' firms make up only a quarter of region's high-growth business population, new report finds

The data shows an increase from last year's list, which revealed that women-powered businesses made up 18.7 per cent of the region's high-growth businesses population.

High-growth businesses are those which have met one of Beauhurst’s tracking triggers, such as securing equity investment or spinning out of an academic institution, which often indicate a company’s growth potential.

Nationally, the report found that since 2013 the number of women-powered companies that have made successful exits has risen dramatically—from just five exits in 2013 to 171 in 2022.

Between 2021 and 2022, the number of exits for women-powered businesses bucked the broader trend for the high-growth population, rising from 147 to 171.

Despite the rise in exit numbers for women-powered businesses, however, 2022 saw a decrease in the total value of these exits to £1.58 billion. This was a drop from the combined exit value of £2.96 billion in 2021.

Charlotte Bobroff, co-head of UK Women & Wealth at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, said: “This year’s report found that the number of exits for women-owned, led or managed businesses continued to trend upwards over the year.

“Women-powered companies are still underrepresented in the cohort of exited businesses and not achieving the same growth in exit values.

“This is underscored by the fact that a mere 10.9 per cent of all exits by high-growth firms over the past decade were by women-powered businesses, underlining ongoing gender parity challenges women face in harnessing entrepreneurship as a means of wealth generation.”

Three businesses based in Yorkshire and The Humber made this year’s top 20 from J.P Morgan’s Top 200 Women-Powered Businesses.

Halifax-based Activate Group, which specialises in accident management services, placed 10th on the list.

Sheffield-based educational publisher Twinkl also places 13th on the list, while Hull-based ResQ came 15th.

Across Yorkshire and The Humber, there were 50 equity investment deals made from women-powered firms, with the combined amount raised totalling £47.1 million. This was an increase from 2021, when £19.9 million was raised.

On a proportional basis, despite constituting 24.8 per cent of Yorkshire and The Humber’s equity deals, women-powered businesses secured only 12.9 per cent of the total investment in 2022.

The report also found that nationally, the top sectors by population for women-powered businesses tend to be digital sectors such as internet platform and food & drink processors.

Ms Bobroff added: “We found that whilst internet platform is the sector which has the highest number of active women-powered businesses, they make up less than a third of the broader population of businesses. We found similar trends in emerging sectors, with women-powered artificial intelligence companies representing a quarter of the sector despite it being the largest sector for emerging growth.”