Fund Her North partners with NatWest to boost investment opportunities

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Fund Her North has partnered with NatWest to support investment opportunities for female entrepreneurs across the North of England.

The regional volunteer collective is the first of its kind in the UK and aims to encourage more women in the North to apply for investments and funding to support entrepreneurship and grow female-led businesses, particularly in a post-Covid world.

Bringing together more than 30 women from the investment industry, Fund Her North was established in October 2020 and has a combined investment power of £450m.

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The new partnership forms part of NatWest’s strategy aiming to support enterprise funding post-Covid-19.

NatWest CEO Alison Rose said: “There has never been a more important time to get behind UK businesses and Fund Her North’s mission aligns with our commitment to help create 50,000 new jobs by 2023, 75% of which will be outside of London and the South East.

“What’s more, we want women to be at the helm of 60% of these businesses, with 20 per cent of these women coming from ethnic minority backgrounds. Fund Her North will help turn this ambition into a reality and I am excited to pledge our support to the collective.”

Jess Jackson, head of investment at GC Angels and member of Fund Her North, added: “At GC Angels, we are proud of the work we do to ensure that female founders are given the same opportunities as their male counterparts.

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“This work has resulted in 39% of all our raises going to women, but sadly this does not reflect the national picture.

“It’s been inspiring working with a group of women who share my ambition to make equity investment work for female-fronted businesses.

“Fund Her North was formed out of an urgent need to address the imbalances in access to investment available for female-led organisations in the North. With female founders two thirds more likely to receive investment from female investors, we focus on both female entrepreneurs and investors.

“Though we are a new organisation, we’ve already seen some promising results. Our first pitch event has generated circa £1.5m in investment offers, while our recent event for female angel investors had 100 attendees.