6 March 2017, London. Ground-breaking research calling attention to the economic impact of female business leaders in 2017 shows that the annual revenue of women-led companies in the UK is growing at 28% with a median turnover of £3.7m. This exciting data is being released by Founders4Schools to coincide with International Women’s Day.
A slideshare presentation can be downloaded from THIS LINK
The research analysis is based on open-government and LinkedIn datasets comparing business leaders and company growth data. It reveals how companies led by women grow, perform and rank, identifying the fastest-growing and most dynamic women-led businesses across the UK. Founders4Schools - an ed-tech charity set up by Sherry Coutu CBE - helps raise student aspirations by connecting them to inspirational business leaders creating jobs. Founders4Schools has compiled the data into live interactive maps, revealing the location of fast growth businesses lead by women with revenues between £1m and £250m.
In addition to showing the continued growth of these businesses, the data highlights the diversity of women-led companies. There were almost 900 (871) female-led businesses with revenue in this bracket in 2016 - a 14% jump on last year. The cumulative revenue added over £15 bn to the UK economy than the previous year. The top ten sectors include events, IT, computer software, insurance, recruitment and healthcare, and sixty six percent of the businesses are headquartered outside of London.
Sherry Coutu CBE, Founder and Chairman of Founders4Schools, said, “This International Women’s Day, we want to celebrate the impact that so many female business leaders are having on our economy. All around the country, women are creating jobs that drive our economy- and at the same time taking time out of their hectic schedules to support their community by helping in their local schools via Founders4Schools. Success is important, but seeing these business leaders standing up, holding their heads high, and helping others, is an inspiration. I’m delighted that the research we are releasing highlights the extent to which women drive the growth in our economy and I could not be prouder that Founders4Schools is playing its part in helping students come into contact with these individuals as they explore possible career destinations provided by these women”
To ensure the continued growth and economic impact of female-led businesses, Founders4Schools is announcing a campaign this to get more female founders into schools to inspire greater numbers of young women. Sherry Coutu will host several events across the country for female founders who already give up their time to speak at schools - starting this morning at the London Stock Exchange. As well as hosting two women only CEO summits focused on international expansion, Founders4Schools will also be encouraging all women playing a leading role in a growing business to sign up to founders4schools to ensure young girls are as inspired as the boys to start their own businesses and make serious contributions to the UK economy in the future.
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About Founders4Schools
Founders4Schools uses technology to make it easy and time efficient for teachers to connect students with local business leaders to raise their students’ aspirations. To date, Founders4Schools has helped teachers all over the UK arrange over 124,000 student-employer encounters.
Press contacts:
Charlie Hamilton, Senior Associate, FieldHouse Associates
+44 (0) 500 804013
charlie@fieldhouseassociates.com
Joe McRoberts, Head of Marketing, Founders4Schools
+44(0)7947 194 542