Capital with intent: BGF’s £300m commitment to women founders — and its first investments

Aug 17, 2025

For over a decade, BGF (formerly the Business Growth Fund) has been one of the UK’s most active growth capital investors, deploying more than £4.5 billion into over 600 businesses nationwide. Known for its patient, minority-equity model, BGF has quietly become a backbone of SME growth.

Now, it’s putting serious weight behind women founders.

From £25m to £300m: raising the stakes

As part of the Invest in Women Taskforce, BGF initially pledged £25m to women-led companies. Within months, that commitment was scaled up more than tenfold to £300m, to be deployed over the next three years.

Crucially, this isn’t a new fund. The money comes from BGF’s existing £3bn balance sheet, ring-fenced specifically for female-led ventures. In practice, this means the capital is available now, but must be channelled deal by deal into qualifying businesses.

What a £300m pledge really means:

It’s a public commitment, not a legal contract.
Investments still go through BGF’s standard deal process.
The reputational cost of not deploying is high; politicians and founders are watching.

FFinc’s Forward Faster Accelerator: scaling women-led businesses

In August 2025, BGF announced its backing of the Forward Faster Accelerator, launched by FFinc (formerly the WealthiHer Network, founded by Tamara Gillan).

What makes this different is structure. Forward Faster isn’t just mentoring, it’s designed as a growth accelerator for female-powered businesses, pairing capital with commercial strategy, scale support, and visibility.

The model borrows from proven accelerator playbooks but addresses the specific barriers women face in scaling, networks, pitching confidence, and visibility with investors.

Why it matters:

Signals FFinc’s broader mission: supports systemic change in how women-led businesses grow.
Creates a pipeline of founders too often overlooked by mainstream venture and growth equity.
Sets a precedent: closing the gender investment gap requires capital, not just mentorship.

CWC Group: care as a growth sector

BGF’s first direct investment under the Taskforce went to CWC Group, a female-powered care provider in Northern Ireland.

Care is one of the UK’s most underfunded yet critical sectors. Historically viewed as low-margin and non-scalable, it has struggled to attract capital. BGF’s move reframes care as both growth market and social necessity.

Why it matters:

Care is disproportionately delivered and managed by women, yet systematically undervalued.
Investing here challenges the bias that women-led, care-focused businesses are “too soft” for growth capital.
Demographics: With longer lifespans, ageing populations, and acute workforce shortages, care is no longer a “sunk cost” on public balance sheets, it’s a growth sector with rising, unavoidable demand.

Political pushback on delays

Despite the headlines, much of the Taskforce’s capital has yet to reach founders. At a July 2025 Commons Women and Equalities Committee hearing, MPs pressed the government on the lack of urgency.

Liberal Democrat MP Alex Brewer called the progress “tippy-toe” instead of bold strides, accusing ministers of failing to grasp the structural barriers women face. Committee Chair Sarah Owen voiced “frustration,” pointing to the absence of female entrepreneurship in the UK’s industrial strategy, a gap she called “devastating.”

Government ministers acknowledged the slow pace. Gareth Thomas, the Minister for Services, Small Businesses, and Exports pointed to delays in appointing fund managers and the need to reassure funders this capital would be managed well, describing the process as an “encouragement phase.”

Minister of State for Investment, Baroness Poppy Gustafsson conceded the lag but insisted the next step was to “roll up our sleeves” and start deployment.

The urgency is real. All-female founding teams secured just 1.8% of UK venture capital in H1 2024, down from 2.5% the year before. The Rose Review estimates closing this gap could unlock over £250 billion in economic benefit.

The bigger picture

These first moves, backing FFinc and investing in CWC, show BGF’s dual strategy under the Taskforce:

Infrastructure for women founders (Faster Forward Accelerator), and
Direct capital into female-led businesses (CWC Group).

But momentum is everything. With £500m+ committed across the Taskforce and a ticking deadline of end-2025, scrutiny is rising. Will this capital move at pace, or remain stuck in institutional pipelines?

For women founders, the stakes are high. Despite commanding only 1.8% of equity funding, women-led startups already deliver more revenue per pound raised than their male counterparts. If capital actually flows, the multiplier effect could be transformational.

Final thought

Capital isn’t neutral: it reflects belief in who and what deserves to grow. By backing FFinc and CWC Group, BGF is starting to reshape the story of what counts as investable.

But pledges only matter if money reaches founders. For the Invest in Women Taskforce to succeed, it must move from headlines to a steady flow of funded businesses.

In a market where women still fight for scraps of venture and growth equity, £300m isn’t just a pledge, it’s a chance to rewrite the future of UK entrepreneurship.

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka. We do no provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial adviser.

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