Angel Academe Launches UK’s First Female Founder EIS Fund

Angel Academe, the angel network that has been investing in women leaders for over ten years, has launched the UK’s first female founder focused EIS fund in partnership with fund manager, SyndicateRoom. Despite compelling evidence that female-led businesses deliver stronger financial returns, the funding landscape remains unequal. In 2023, less than 3% of venture capital (VC) in the UK went to women-founded startups. By mid-2024, that figure had dropped further, with all-female teams securing just 1.8% of total equity investment.

In response, Angel Academe, an angel network championing women leaders for over a decade, has launched the UK’s first Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) fund dedicated to female founders. Partnering with fund manager SyndicateRoom., the initiative offers early-stage investors the chance to co-invest from as little as £10,000, while accessing full EIS tax benefits, including 30% income tax relief and capital gains deferral.

“This fund aims to put capital directly into the hands of female founders building innovative businesses,” said Sarah Turner, co-founder and CEO of Angel Academe. “Too often, efforts to address the funding gap have been focused on words rather than actions. It’s not about pledges - it’s about action.”

The fund plans to begin co-investing in female-led tech startups from Q4 2025, with a target raise of £1.2 million in its first year and ambitions to expand annually.

“The bottom line is that backing female founders represents a market inefficiency and untapped investment opportunity,” said Tom Britton, co-founder of SyndicateRoom. “This fund offers investors the chance to diversify their portfolio, and we know how important diversification is when it comes to achieving strong returns.”

The Business Case for Backing Women

Startups with at least one female founder generate 63% higher returns than all-male teams. Women-led businesses also deliver double the revenue per dollar invested. Studies from the Boston Consulting Group, Kauffman Foundation, and universities including Glasgow and Leicester consistently show that companies with more women in leadership perform better and are more capital-efficient.

Closing the funding gap isn’t a matter of fairness, it is an economic necessity. If women launched and scaled businesses at the same rate as men, the UK economy could grow by £250 billion. Globally, the figure could reach $5 trillion.

Structural Barriers Remain Entrenched

Still, female entrepreneurs face persistent headwinds. According to the World Bank, just 2% of VC funding in the UK reaches women-led businesses, while all-male teams receive 89%. Research by Enterprise Nation found women are more likely to seek smaller amounts of funding, often under £10,000, and less likely to aim for £1 million-plus raises. Misread as caution or lack of ambition, this behaviour is often shaped by deeper structural bias.

Dana Kanze, a doctoral researcher at Columbia Business School, attributes much of the disparity to how investors engage with women. During a pitch at TechCrunch Disrupt, she and her male co-founder, equal in credentials, were asked markedly different questions. While he fielded queries about growth, she was interrogated about risk.

Her subsequent study, published in the Academy of Management Journal, revealed that this pattern is widespread. Women are more often asked “prevention” questions, while men are quizzed on “promotion” topics. The result? Lower funding outcomes. Kanze argues that aligning the types of questions asked could erase much of the disparity.

The issue extends beyond the boardroom. A 2024 survey by Code First Girls found 40% of female entrepreneurs had experienced gender-based discrimination. Sixty-one per cent said stereotypes were a major barrier to reaching senior roles.

Representation remains woefully lacking and just 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and only three are Black women. Without visible role models, mentorship and access to decision-making circles are harder to come by.

Entrepreneurs like Emmie Faust are working to shift the narrative. Her platform, Female Founders Rise, provides coaching, marketing, funding support and peer networks tailored to women.

“We should champion women in business,” says Faust. “Be there as a support, celebrate their wins, share their posts on LinkedIn, or whatever it might be. Showing female founders that you’re there and that you’re a supporter makes a massive difference.”

And for those unable to invest financially? “They can buy their products, hire their services, and diversify their supplier list,” she adds.

Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen, co-founder of Female Invest, believes the issue begins with financial education. “There are these stereotypes that ‘women are bad at maths and women are big spenders’,” she says.

She argues that even financial advice is gendered, “Women are often encouraged to save, while men are urged to build wealth.”

“A lot of what we do is about creating a safe space,” Hartvigsen explains. “We know that many women don’t feel they can trust financial institutions. We took on the challenge of educating women and closing the confidence gap—we just need to communicate financial information differently.”

She believes women now hold unprecedented financial power. “We are more educated than ever before, we make more money than ever before and if we use that money as power by investing… then it has potential to create change like we have never seen before.”

The launch of the new female founder focused fund is an important intervention in a system that continues to undervalue women’s leadership. The data is clear, investing in women isn’t a concession, it’s a commercial advantage. The challenge now is to ensure capital follows the evidence.

You can listen to a range of women who work in this space on the Profit Meets Purpose Podcast.