Britain’s spinout ecosystem is grappling with a gender gap so deep that, if left unchecked, it won’t close until 2060, according to new research.

Two years on from the UK Government’s independent review of UK spinouts, the Entrepreneurs Network’s Ideas to Impact report, published alongside Barclays, found almost no change in gender representation among these fledgling firms, with less than 8% of spinouts being founded entirely by women, while more than 75% are all-male.

With the dial barely shifting since 2023, the report said that if nothing changes, it will take another thirty-four years for the UK’s spinout sector to reach gender parity in the number of female‑founded firms created, a failure that will cost not only women but the economy at large.

One major problem highlighted by the Entrepreneurs Network is that female founders routinely encounter friction in accessing finance compared to their male counterparts, a barrier that has been called out in a number of reports across the UK’s tech sector. 

The study found that investors and universities are guilty of bias, even unconsciously, citing evidence that women are asked “prevention” questions, focused on risks and losses, twice as often as male founders, who receive more “promotion” questions.

Last year, a report from the Founders Forum Group found that women are interrupted almost five times more than men when pitching, with female founders asked twice as often about their care commitments and family planning.

The Entrepreneurs Network warned that such attitudes are driving female‑founded spinouts to failure in the “Valley of Death”, one of the earliest stages of development where firms need a surge of investment but face a far higher risk of collapse than delivering returns.

At this stage, the report claims, the ability to win funding is often based on the potential of founders rather than any meaningful metrics, which mostly do not yet exist. 

This system, the study argues, has “historically favoured” men, noting that investment memos for female founders include more than twice as many references to risk as those for male founders, with women described as “cautious,” “inexperienced,” and “emotional” more than three times as often as their male peers.

Yet, when they do negotiate, women are found to do so less aggressively than men, a consequence of the higher social penalties they face when viewed as assertive, a problem made worse by a distinct lack of female voices on investment committees.

Recommended reading

• MPs Warn Female-led Firms Are Being Starved of Capital
• Number of Women Startup Founders Nearly Doubled Over A Decade
• UK’s Female Founders Receive Just 2% of Equity Funding

According to the report, the first step in solving the problem is to fix the “leaky pipeline” of gender data. Universities should be mandated to publish granular data regarding spinout creation, it argues, in everything from equity splits and licence terms to ethnicity and demographic markers, a level of data collection that has already proven useful with the Investing in Women Code.

Among the other recommendations championed in the report are de-risking career pauses with Commercialisation Fellowships – allowing women to more easily step out of academia to build a company – and broadening mentorship opportunities with the creation of a National Founder Exchange, to link female founders with experienced CEOs.

“If we are to deliver on our Mission for Growth, we cannot afford to leave any talent sitting on the sidelines,” said Seema Malhotra, UK minister for equalities.

“The data in this report is a reminder of the work ahead…and it is imperative that we dismantle the barriers and biases that prevent more women from commercialising their research.”