Why are female-founded businesses struggling to secure capital?

'Gargantuan challenge'

Know a woman with a great business idea trying to catch the eye of the investment world? Tell them to buckle up, because research suggests they are going to have a problem, writes Laura Miller.

Of all the UK private equity investment in 2018, female-founded companies won just 2%, according to last year's British Business Bank's Equity Tracker. Two US studies shed light on what is going on: business school Babson College found 90% of venture capitalists were men. BBC's Dragons' Den may try to keep a 50/50 split when it comes to male and female angel investors, but the real world is very different. Arguably a problem in itself, the real kicker is analysis by the California Institute of Technology, which found female-fronted companies were seen as less desirable to male inve...