Closing the Gender Funding Gap: Insights from 50,000+ Grant Enquiries

After analysing tens of thousands of UK tech grant funding enquiries, we uncovered that while tech grant funding is far from equal between men and women, there’s evidence to suggest that it’s moving in the right direction.

On the surface, our research highlights a disparity in the number of men and women seeking tech grant funding – even as female entrepreneurs lead groundbreaking innovations that deserve global recognition and, more importantly, fair funding. 

At the same time, our data suggests that women, on average, apply for less grant funding as a result of industries they work in that require less initial capital.

Through our work with incredible women-led businesses, we’ve seen firsthand that talent and ambition aren’t the issue — access to capital is. However, we're not just missing out on groundbreaking female-led innovations — we’re losing up to £250 billion in potential economic growth.

Explore our key findings in more detail to see how Grantify is helping to close the gap, driving real change, and contributing to a funding landscape that is steadily moving toward greater gender equality.

Based on more than 50,000 UK tech grant enquiries Grantify received in 2024, our data reveals that 72% of tech grant enquiries were from men versus just 28% of women. This means that men are more than twice as likely to apply for tech grant funding in the UK compared to women.

While this disparity highlights an unequal divide in enquiries from men and women, it also signals a positive shift when compared to the number of female-led business formations. In 2023, women founders accounted for 18% of new companies formed in the UK – totalling 164,000 incorporations at Companies House and marking a 4% increase from 2022. This suggests that female entrepreneurs are increasingly exploring alternative funding routes, such as grants, to fuel their businesses.

Further supporting this trend, the latest Innovate UK data shows that one in three successful grant applications were led by women — a significant improvement from one in seven in 2016. These findings underscore the growing role of grant funding in levelling the playing field for female founders.

Our data shows that male-led businesses are 1.3 times more likely to request large grants (£500,000+). However, when you take into account the industries they operate in, the gap becomes much smaller.

Female-led businesses tend to be in sectors where smaller grants (£1,000 to £9,000) are more common, while male-led businesses are more likely to be in industries that require larger investments. Once this is factored in, the difference in funding requests is minimal: women were just 3.1% less likely than men to request £500K+ funding, while they were 4.6% more likely to apply for smaller grants (£1,000 to £9,000).

This means the perceived ambition gap in funding requests is mostly due to the types of industries each gender tends to focus on — not a lack of ambition from female entrepreneurs.

Our data reveals that female-led businesses are significantly more likely to seek tech grants in certain industries:

• 1.8x more likely in the Community sector
• 1.8x more likely in Education
• 1.7x more likely in Retail & Consumer Services
• 1.6x more likely in Healthcare
• 1.2x more likely in Professional Services

These industries often align with social impact, education, and caregiving fields where women have historically played strong leadership roles.

Meanwhile, male-led businesses were more likely to seek tech grants in industries with traditionally larger capital requirements:

• 2.1x more likely in Energy & Sustainability
• 2.1x more likely in Transportation & Logistics
• 1.8x more likely in Technology & Software
• 1.7x more likely in Finance
• 1.6x more likely in Construction & Property

While our data suggests a positive change, with an increase in female-led companies accessing tech funding, we must not ignore the broader funding picture. Especially, while tech grants provide a crucial alternative funding stream, they alone cannot close the gender funding gap.

Forbes reports that in the first half of 2024, the amount of capital going to businesses founded by women in the UK decreased from 2% to 1.8% compared to the previous year. Whereas, the amount of capital going towards all-male-founded teams rose from 80% to 86% in the same period. 

Likewise, NatWest Group reports that lack of funding remains the single biggest issue holding female entrepreneurs back, with its data revealing that female-founded companies received less than 1% of total UK venture capital, despite almost one-third of entrepreneurs being female.

These findings indicate this is a pressing issue and that more work needs to be done to close the gender gap across all business funding avenues. Unfortunately, the funding disparity is also just one of many challenges women face on their entrepreneurial journey. There are numerous unique barriers that female entrepreneurs face when it comes to entrepreneurial success. According to British Business Bank, additional hurdles include societal bias, limited networking opportunities, imposter syndrome, and lack of work-life balance.

The Women in Innovation Awards, established by Innovate UK in 2016, aim to empower and celebrate female entrepreneurs across the UK. These awards provide recipients with a £75,000 grant and bespoke business support to accelerate the growth of their businesses. The programme seeks to address challenges such as access to funding, lack of visible role models, and limited networking opportunities that many women innovators face. 

"The data in this report highlights both the progress and the challenges that still exist for women in tech funding. While we’re seeing more female founders come to us with groundbreaking ideas — and securing significant funding — the fact that men still dominate large grant applications shows there’s more work to be done.

“At Grantify, we believe that access to funding should be based on innovation and impact, not gender. Diversity is core to who we are as a company, and we’re committed to breaking down barriers so that all founders, regardless of gender or background, have the support they need to thrive."

Stephanie Ward

Senior Funding Consultant @ Grantify

The awards are open to women founders, co-founders, or senior decision-makers within UK-registered small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from all sectors and regions. Applicants are encouraged to present innovative ideas that tackle pressing societal, environmental, or economic challenges. Beyond financial support, awardees receive tailored business assistance, including guidance on funding and finance options, media and communications, developing new business models, evaluating market opportunities, finding new partners, growth and scale-up strategies, and accessing global markets. 

Since its inception, the programme has supported over 200 winners and awarded more than £11 million in funding. Notably, there has been a significant increase of over 100% in women applying for Innovate UK funding, reflecting the programme's impact on fostering gender diversity in innovation.

Grantify is levelling the playing field for female founders by making funding more accessible, transparent, and achievable. In a world where women-led businesses receive only a fraction of available funding, Grantify is actively closing the gender funding gap by providing the tools, guidance, and confidence needed to secure the grants they deserve.

Every successful application is not just a win for the founder but a step toward a more equitable future in business. Now is the time for more women to seize these opportunities, unlock their potential, and reshape the entrepreneurial landscape.